Tom Waits - Studio albums from 1-17

Pos.		Album		Release year		Album rate
1.		Swordfishtrombones		1983		4,58
2.		Small Change		1976		4,32
3.		Heartattack and Vine		1980		4,28
4.		The Heart of Saturday Night		1974		4,18
5.		Bad as Me		2011		4,12
6.		Frank's Wild Years		1987		4,08
7.		Blue Valentine		1978		4,06
8.		Rain Dogs		1985		3,96
9.		Mule Variations		1999		3,94
10.		Bone Machine		1992		3,88
11.		Nighthawks at the Diner		1975		3,86
12.		Closing Time		1973		3,85
13.		Real Gone		2004		3,78
14.		Foreign Affairs		1977		3,68
15.		Alice		2002		3,48
16.		The Black Rider		1993		3,33
17.		Blood Money		2002		3,18

Tom Waits "Bad as Me" (2011)

Bad as Me
release date: Oct. 24, 2011
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]
producer: Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan
label: ANTI- - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Chicago" (4 / 5) - 2. "Raised Right Men" (4 / 5) - 3. "Talking at the Same Time" - 4. "Get Lost" (4,5 / 5) - 6. "Pay Me" - 7. "Back in the Crowd" - 8. "Bad as Me" (4,5 / 5) - 10. "Satisfied" (4 / 5) - 12. "Hell Broke Luce" (5 / 5) - 13. "New Year's Eve"

17the studio album by Tom Waits following Real Gone (2004) with seven full years.

What a comeback album! Everyone should own a copy. Much of what makes it so great is Waits ability to combine all the styles he has experimented with over four decades into one harmonious release. Bad as Me contains vocal jazz, electric blues rock, cabaret music with ties to Kurt Weill, and it contains experimental art rock tunes linking to Captain Beefheart - all of this mixed well and thoroughly together into single compositions, as well as being poured over the entire album.

Still, there are quite big differences between the individual tracks and there is of course the special Tom Waits touch to hold it all together. Also, I think this is the first time he really succeeds with his most experimental expression since Swordfishtrombones (1983) and through it manages to create songs of the highest quality.

2011 Favourite releases: 1. The Streets Computers and Blues - 2. Tom Waits Bad as Me - 3. Liz Green O, Devotion!

Tom Waits "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, & Bastards" (2006)

Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, & Bastards (compilation)
release date: Nov. 20, 2006
format: cd (3-disc box set)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits
label: ANTI- - nationality: USA

A compilation album, and there's some when a man has made music very consistently for four decades. This is not the usual Best of kind of release. First thing that differs is that it's a box set of 3 discs. Well, that should maybe do it in comprising his long career but that's not really the way it has been compiled. Apparently, Waits had wanted a release with some of the songs that had been left out of albums throughout the years and he intended to make a slow ballad-like disc of all his softer songs and a raw and ferocious disc with his energetic complementary side, but then Brennan came up with the idea of three discs 'cause they also needed room for the ones that didn't fit either of the two labels. So the songs are intentionally placed according to style and temper, so that the first disc of "Brawlers" are tracks that rock. They are his blues rock and most poignant rock tunes. The second disc of "Bawlers" is a collection of singer / songwriter ballads and vocal jazz songs, as many of his albums contain these two complementary tempers, and the last disc of "Bastards" is reserved for his experimental cabaret and art rock... or you could say the ones that don't fit in - the most... 'crazy' stuff, perhaps. In this way it's a fine box set, and it's a rare compilation that makes it all a whole, although the individual songs have been written in different periods of time, so according to your mood and / or interest, one may select a specific musical style.

Tom Waits "Real Gone" (2004)

Real Gone
release date: Oct. 5, 2004
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan
label: ANTI- - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 2. "Hoist That Rag" (4,5 / 5) (live) - 3. "Sins of the Father" - 4. "Shake It" - 5. "Don't Go Into That Barn" - 9. "Circus" - 10. "Trampled Rose" (live) - 12. "Baby Gonna Leave Me" - 14. "Make It Rain" (live on Letterman) - 15. "Day After Tomorrow" (live)

16th studio album by Tom Waits - his fourth after changing to ANTI- - following 2½ years after the double release Blood Money and Alice (May 2002).

Real Gone brings to mind Bone Machine (1992) and The Black Rider (1993) in the way that it's about experimental rock but also in a theatrical blues rock style, which partly distances the album from the fine Mule Variations (1999) and at the same time, it also appears as something new with a different rhythm section - as Waits' own "Clang-Boom-Steam" [also the title of track #13] vocal beatbox as background instrumentation - that mix modern styles with an echo of hip-hop and alt. rock.
The Kurt Weil influence from his 2002 releases is somewhat more absent here, whereas you sense a reference to Don Van Vliet. Waits and Brennan's oldest son, Casey Waits is as alt. metal drummer Brain [aka Brian Kei Mantia] both credited drums and percussion on several tracks. Waits' two other children, the eldest, Kellesimone, and the youngest, Sullivan, are also credited as 'production crew' and for 'grub and lug' [food etc.]. A newer element is the clearer use of electric guitar - played by Marc Ribbot (of Lounge Lizards) - on most tracks, which also helps to create a tinge of experimental blues.

The album even overtook the chart success of Mule Variations and peaked at number #28, the highest for a Waits album on the US Billboard 200, and landed as number #16 in the UK, number #2 in Norway, in addition to several top-10 positions around the world.

My first impression of the album was not positive, but over time I have found it quite a lot better and overall I think it's a significantly better album than Blood Money / Alice and The Black Rider.

[ allmusic.com, NME 3,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5, Mojo, The Guardian 4 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Alice" (2002)

Alice
release date: May 4, 2002
format: cd (6632-2)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]
producer: Kathleen Brennan, Tom Waits
label: ANTI- - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Alice" - 5. "Kommienezuspadt" - 7. "Table Top Joe" - 11. "Reeperbahn" - 12. "I'm Still Here" - 13. "Fish & Bird"

15th studio album by Tom Waits following three years after the acclaimed Mule Variations (1999) is released simultaneously with the album Blood Money, which contains music by Waits to the play "Woyzech" by Georg Büchner in a theatrical adaptation directed by Robert Wilson, which premiered at Betty Nansen Theatre in Copenhagen, Nov. 2000. In this regard, Alice is not just one of Waits' more regular studio releases - as I initially thought of it. The 2002 album Alice is actually Waits' new recordings to his own music written and composed for the the play 1992 play "Alice", which he also made with Robert Wilson. Both albums have lyrics and music by Kathleen Brennan and Waits and they are both released on ANTI-. And as has become a bit of a habit, the couple, Waits and Brennan, also co-produced the album together.

The album follows closely in the same style as Mule Variations and like that has a bit of a return feel picking up some of his more laid-back albums with focus on vocal jazz as contrary to his more noisy albums of the '90s. The title track is a mighty fine and mellow tune, and the album's best song, although, it really sounds a lot like "Soldier's Things" from Swordfishtrombones (1983). And that's really also the album's most evident weakness - that it sounds much like a mix of what we've heard before from '83 and up until '99, and in that sense Waits doesn't deliver what he always sat out to do: to never repeat himself.

Compared to Blood Money the album contains songs in a gentler ballad-like style, which could be refered to as a more feminine tone.

[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Rolling Stone, NME 4 / 5, Spin 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Blood Money" (2002)

Blood Money
release date: May 4, 2002
format: cd (6629-2)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
label: ANTI- - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Misery Is the River of the World" - 5. "God's Away on Business" (official video) - 9. "Starving in the Belly of a Whale" - 13. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

14th studio album by Tom Waits is his music to the play "Woyzech" [an album title Waits rejected as he apparently thought noone would know who that was, and Brennan suggested "Blood Money", 'cause that's what the play is basically about], which premiered at Betty Nansen Theatre in Copenhagen, Nov. 2000. The album is released simultaneously with the album Alice both written, composed and produced by Tom Waits and (wife) Kathleen Brennan.

Stylistically, the music doesn't add new angles nor new elements to the music by Waits but it emphasises his experimental cabaret music, which seems to lean on the music by Kurt Weill, and while the songs themselves are not bad, they simply sound like pieces you've heard before.

Comparing the album to Alice this appears more angry and masculine as a person's wry position to all the bad things about the world.

[ allmusic.com, The Guardian, Q Magazine 4 / 5, NME, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Used Songs (1973-1980)" (2001)

Used Songs (1973-1980) (compilation)
relase date: Oct. 23, 2001
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Bones Howe
label: Elektra / Rhino / Warner - nationality: USA

16-track best of compilation by Tom Waits, basically containing some of his best-known songs from the first seven albums of the 70s - all compositions from his time at Asylum Records.

It is of course an almost impossible task to select this man's best tracks for a single CD release, as he has simply made so many worthy songs, but what is equally important: he has released entire albums of classic material that should be seen in context, and yet... for people who don't know his entire repertoire, this might be a good place to start.

Personally, I would undoubtedly have chosen other songs from this period, and I'm really surprised that only a single track has been selected from his first two albums, only two from Small Change (1976), whereas a less significant album like Foreign Affairs (1977) might boast of having as many as four tracks represented. And then all the tracks from the seven albums are scattered across the album in what looks like random order - starting with the title track from his final album on Asylum Heartattack and Vine (1980) and ending with his classic "Tom Traubert's Blues" from Small Change. Despite these slightly annoying decisions about the album, it can't take away the feeling of being a mighty fine collection.

Tom Waits "Mule Variations" (1999)

Mule Variations
release date: Apr. 27, 1999
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,04]
producer: Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan
label: ABTI- / Epitaph - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Big in Japan" - 2. "Lowside of the Road" - 3. "Hold On" (official video) (4 / 5) - 4. "Get Behind the Mule" - 5. "House Where Nobody Lives" - 6. "Cold Water" - 8. "What's He Building?" (official video) - 10. "Eyeball Kid" - 11. "Picture in a Frame" - 12. "Chocolate Jesus" (live) - 13. "Georgia Lee" - 14. "Filipino Box Spring Hog" - 15. "Take It With Me" - 16. "Come on Up to the House"

13th studio album by Tom Waits following a long 5½ years after The Black Rider (1993) is his first album of new material after leaving Island Records, on which label he had been on a contract since '83. Instead of trying to renew his contract with the established record company, he chose to sign a contract with the newly established and independent label, ANTI-. All sixteen tracks are credited Waits, twelve of which are co-written with his wife, Kathleen Brennan. The album is a rather long affair with a total running time of more than 70 minutes.

The album is simply a clear improvement over his '93 release, but as it has often been the case with Tom Waits, this one marks a musical shift. The '90s have been, if anything, his experimental decade, and sometimes it proved very successful, while at other times he hit a little off the mark, but he has always been an exponent of making music in surprising new ways, as with this one, where he chooses to record his voice via megaphone. Mule Variations is an album with elements from blues rock in a singer / songwriter context and compositions that may be called experimental in an art rock category, and some tracks are influenced by cabaret / circus music, but at the same time it's more laid back - like a collection of songs inspired by country rock and / or Americana, and this is probably where the really new elements come into the picture when talking about Waits.

The album would prove to be Tom Waits' most significant chart-topper ever on the Billboard 200 in his home country, peaking at number #30, and not only was it a success here as it went to number #22 in France, No. #13 in Australia, No. #9 in the UK, No. #4 in Germany, and then it simply topped the album chart in Norway. More honors followed when Mojo nominated it as "Album of the Year" and Waits himself was nominated in "Best Male Rock Vocal Performance" for the song "Hold On" at the '99 Grammy Awards, and Mule Variations won the award "Best Contemporary Folk Album" - his second award at the Grammy Awards.

The strength of the album lies very much in the supplementary lyrics, and these are not seldom the fascinating narratives created by Waits' wife, Kathleen Brennan. The album is quite complete and functions as a whole from an artist who knows how to renew himself and his music.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com, The Guardian 4 / 5, NME 3,5 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 4,5 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Beautiful Maladies (The Island Years)" (1998)

Beautiful Maladies (The Island Years) (compilation)
release date: Jun. 1998
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Best of compilation by Tom Waits released on Island Records AFTER he had left the label and signed with the small independent label, ANTI-.

The album contains 23 tracks taken from seven albums released over a decade starting with his '83 album Swordfishtrombones through to The Black Rider from '93.

It's hard to say anything sensible about the chosen order of tracks - which may seem to be a slightly randomised, but the chosen tracks as such are excellent in representing his musical heritage and the period while on Island Records. The easiest thing is to point to the songs that are not here - for example "In the Neighborhood", "Soldier's Thing", "Train Song", "Goin' Out West", but as highlighted material from a decade boiled down to a single cd issue, it does work as a fine selection.

Tom Waits "The Black Rider" (1993)

The Black Rider
release date: Sep. 1993
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,33]
producer: Tom Waits
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Poster from the play

12th studio album by Tom Waits following one year after Bone Machine is also his final release of new material to be issued on Island Records. Shortly after his departure from Island, the label released the compilation Beautiful Maladies (The Island Years) (1998).

The Black Rider is a combination of material written and composed specifically for the album blended with tracks taken from the play / 'musical fable' "The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets" (which premiered in 1990) - a collaboration between stage director Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, and beat author William S. Burroughs, who himself participates on the album's sixth composition.

As with Waits' later performances [Alice / Blood Money] in collaboration with Wilson, I never found this album particularly good - perhaps the staging was excellent, but the music does not work particularly well as a pure album release.

[ allmusic.com 2 / 5, Mojo, Q Magazine 3 / 5, Rolling Stone, Select 4 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Bone Machine" (1992)

Bone Machine
release date: Sep. 8, 1992
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Earth Died Screaming" - 2. "Dirt in the Ground" - 3. "Such a Scream" - 4. "All Stripped Down" - 5. "Who Are You" - 7. "Jesus Gonna Be Here" - 8. "A Little Rain" - 10. "Goin' Out West" (4 / 5) - 12. "Black Wings" - 13. "Whistle Down the Wind" - 14. "I Don't Wanna Grow Up"

11th studio album from Tom Waits follows the release of the soundtrack Night on Earth (Apr. '92) is his first studio album featuring his wife Kathleen Brennan as 'associate producer' - she is credited as co-producer on Big Time (Sep. 88).

After what could be described, with some goodwill, as a trilogy of albums with an approximately uniform style starting with Swordfishtrombones (1983) and ending with Frank's Wild Years (1987), with this Waits takes another big step into a musical territory of experimental rock, and now with the use of stronger distorted vocals and more pronounced use of a variety of percussion. However, the album still features signature ballads such as "Who Are You", "A Little Rain", and "Whistle Down the Wind".

This album in particular took me some time to understand as something unique - which it really is, once you are ready for it, but my first impression was really not positive.

Bone Machine peaked at number #26 on the UK albums chart and it generally fared better in Europe, although, the album earned Waits the award "Best Alternative Music Album" at the 1992 Grammy Awards.

The album is Waits' so far final to be featured in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" along with a total of five other Waits releases.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Night on Earth" (OST) (1992)

Night on Earth (soundtrack)
release date: Apr. 7, 1992
format: vinyl / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Tom Waits
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: [ full album ]

An absolutely wonderful soundtrack by Tom Waits for an equally wonderful film by Jim Jarmusch.
Highly recommended.

Tom Waits "Big time" (1988) (live)

Big Time (live)
release date: Sep. 1988
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,77]
producer: Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

1st official live album by Tom Waits containing 18 tracks was recorded in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dublin, Stockholm, and in Berlin. The album has a total running time of approx. 77 mins.

Also a concert film has been issued containing seven additional compositions. The tracks are mainly taken from Swordfishtrombones (1983), Rain Dogs (1985), and from Frank's Wild Years (1987).

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Mojo 3 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Franks Wild Years" (1987)

Franks Wild Years
release date: Aug. 17, 1987
format: cd (1989 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]
producer: Tom Waits
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Hang on St. Christopher" - 2. "Straight to the Top (Rhumba)" - 4. "Temptation" (4 / 5) - 5. "Innocent When You Dream (Barroom)" (5 / 5) - 6. "I'll Be Gone" (4 / 5) - 7. "Yesterday Is Here" - 9. "Frank's Theme" - 11. "Way Down in the Whole" (4 / 5) - 14. "Telephone Call from Istanbul" - 15. "Cold Call Ground" (4,5 / 5) - 16. "Train Song" (4 / 5)

10th studio album by Tom Waits following two years after Rain Dogs carry the subtitle "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts" and it's Waits' music for his & wife Kathleen Brennan's stage show performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and directed by Gary Sinise in Chicago, where the show was staged over a two-month period with Waits in the role of Frank during the Summer of 1986.
This was actually the first Tom Waits album I acquired sometime in '89. I purchased the album upon hearing the song "Innocent When You Dream", which I first thought was a remake of an old classic but later found out was Tom's own composition. I had been thinking for some time about getting hold of some Waits' albums but I simply had no idea where to start.

For a start, I didn't fully appreciate the album the way I later came to. I thought it was fine, but also a little... too strange, since I only knew bits of his albums from the 70s but at the same time, the album also made me curious about the man and his music. Soon after, I came across Swordfishtrombones (1983) at my local music dealer. I noticed that it contained several songs that I knew, so I purchased it on the spot and was completely overwhelmed and intrigued and I just knew I had to dive into his back catalog from start to finish. The title Frank's Wild Years is a track from Swordfishtrombones and is in reference to his father, Frank, who, in addition to teaching Spanish, was widely known as a drunkard who abandoned his family during Tom's childhood.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Uncut 4 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Rain Dogs" (1985)

Rain Dogs
release date: Sep. 30, 1985
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,96]
producer: Tom Waits
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Singapore" - 3. "Cemetery Polka" - 4. "Jockey Full of Bourbon" - 6. "Big Black Mariah" - 8. "Hang Down Your Head" (4,5 / 5) - 9. "Time" - 10. "Rain Dogs" - 13. "Gun Street Girl" - 14. "Union Square" (4 / 5) - 15. "Blind Love" - 16. "Walking Spanish" - 17. "Downtown Train" (4,5 / 5) - 19. "Anywhere I Lay My Head"

9th studio album by Tom Waits and his second self-produced release after being associated with Island Records. "Hang Down Your Head" is the first time (and only time here) that Waits shares credit with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, who on later albums contributes as writer on almost every song since 1999.

As with the predecessor Swordfishtrombones (Sep. 1983) he is here in his experimental corner of singer / songwriter and bluesy jazz. Rain Dogs is another really fine album, although, I don't think it reaches the same extraordinary high level. Perhaps because it's based on the same mechanisms that we first encountered on the '83 album. Still, this is more than just a repeat of his latest album, and it also contains several original compositions. It's Waits' third album in a row - his fourth in total - to make it into "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The album is also included as number #21 on a Rolling Stone album list ranking the best albums of the 1980s, as well as being featured on the list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" also by Rolling Stone.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Mojo, Rolling Stone, Uncut 5 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Swordfishtrombones" (1983)

Swordfishtrombones
release date: Sep. 1983
format: vinyl / cd (1990 reissue) / cd (2008 reissue)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,58]
producer: Tom Waits
label: Island Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Underground" (4 / 5) - 2. "Shore Leave" (4 / 5) - 4. "Johnsburg, Illinois" - 5. "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six" (5 / 5) - 7. "In the Neighborhood" (5 / 5) - 8. "Just Another Sucker on the Vine" - 9. "Frank's Wild Years" (4 / 5) - 10. "Swordfishtrombone" - 11. "Down, Down, Down" (4 / 5) - 12. "Soldier's Things" (4 / 5) - 13. "Gin Soaked Boy" - 15. "Rainbirds"

8th studio album by Tom Waits following his fine Heartattack and Vine (1980) with an unusually long break of three years in between releases. With his first six albums, Waits had lived what seems to be a fixed write/compose-record-tour-life on repeat - booking studios for new recordings, recording new tracks, releasing new albums and embarking on a long tour with new material, after which he would start all over and repeat the process in a one-year cycle.

The writing process with the soundtrack for (the Francis Ford Coppola film) "One From the Heart" (1982) had occupied his time for more than six months. It had prevented him from touring after the release of Heartattack... and it wasn't until '81 that he was finally free to tour again with the songs from his most recent album - a tour which also brought him to Europe. It was during this period that he attempted to break free from his old persona, even though everyone everywhere expected to hear "The Heart of Saturday Night" tracks over and over again. But Waits had grown tired of his image and tired of singing the same (old) songs, and much in a similar way as he had found change in his private life, he had sought change in his music. He had released his first seven albums on Asylum, but upon listening to recordings from his upcoming release, the 'money men' at the label saw no interest in funding a new Waits album of - what they thought was - another non-commercial album. Instead, Waits and wife Kathleen Brennan secured the recordings to be released on Island Records. Swordfishtrombones is the first since his debut not to be produced by Bones Howe. As replacement, Waits installed himself in that role for the first time.

Stylistically, the album is a modern masterpiece where Waits experiments with different styles and where he tries out new ways of creating music. The end result is mainly a singer / songwriter album with ties to blues, rhythm & blues, and vocal jazz AND all that with a touch of experimental rock and art rock lending from Captain Beefheart, world music, Kurt Weill, and with ingredients from non-tonal music to produce a completely new mix of contemporary popular music.

The album is one of my first acquisitions with Tom Waits. Around 1987 / '88 I stumpled upon the album in the local music store and there I noted that it featured "In the Neighborhood", "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six" - both of which where great songs that I knew of, and then it had "Soldier's Things" on the track list. It was a song I knew in a fine interpretation by Paul Young found on his fine The Secret of Association (1985), and all of these were songs that for me literally opened a door to a new world of music. This music was new and completely different from what I normally found myself listening to, and it was this very album that really opened the door into his earlier material. I still listen to this one from time to time and it has never ceased to sound fresh.

Swordfishtrombones is the second album in a row and the third so far from Waits to make its way to "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

A must.

[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Mojo, Uncut 5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

1983 Favourite releases: 1. New Order Power, Corruption & Lies - 2. Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones - 3. Big Country The Crossing

Tom Waits "One From the Heart" (OST) (1982)

2004 remaster

One From the Heart (soundtrack)
release date: Feb. 1982
format: digital (2004 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Bones Howe
label: Columbia / Legacy / Sony Music - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 5. "Broken Bicycles" - 6. "I Beg Your Pardon"

Soundtrack album from Tom Waits featuring Crystal Gayle [younger sister to Loretta Lynn] originally released on CBS Records is Waits' final album with Bones Howe as producer.

All songs are written and composed by Tom Waits, who had been hired and 'installed' in an office in Francis Ford Coppola's production company Zoetrope with the aim to create the music for a musical, which eventually would turn out as an even greater financial [and artistic] failure compared to the outcome of "Apocalypse Now" (1979).

The music by Waits is made in his characteristic style from the mid-70s - just as wanted by Coppola, even though Waits himself alledgedly wanted the music for the soundtrack withdrawn, simply because artistically, he saw himself in another place when the album was made.

The 2004 remastered adds two bonus tracks to the album.

org. '82 cover

Tom Waits "Heartattack and Vine" (1980)

Heartattack and Vine
release date: Sep. 9, 1980
format: vinyl (reissue) / cd (1989 reissue)
[album rate: 4,5 / 5] [4,28]
producer: Bones Howe
label: Asylum / Elektra - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Heartattack and Vine" (4 / 5) - 3. "Saving All My Love for You" - 4. "Downtown" (4 / 5) - 5. "Jersey Girl" (5 / 5) - 6. " 'Til the Money Runs Out" (4 / 5) - 7. "On the Nickel" (5 / 5) (live) - 8. "Mr. Siegal" - 9."Ruby's Arms"

7th studio album by Tom Waits following two years after Blue Valentine (1978) is his last studio release under his own name with Bones Howe as producer - a near-fast fixture since '74 and the producer of a total of six albums. The unusual two-year period between new albums may be seen in the light of the lifestyle he practices together with Rickie Lee Jones. Since her solo debut in early '79, the pair had been living a life on the music industry's infamous shadow side, and Waits had ended their relationship in the fall of '79, simultaneously questioning his continued musical career. He left his 'beloved' LA motel, The Tropicana, his home for the better part of a decade, and moved to the East Coast and New York to find a new focus in life and with the clear intention of starting a healthier life. The change was not the success he had hoped for, and four months after leaving LA 'forever' and with a handful of new experiences, he returned to the City of Angels but this time in his own apartment - away from The Troubadour and away from The Tropicana clientele. It was also during this period that he found his (lasting) love in Kathleen Brennan, whom he (already) married in Aug. 1980. Waits had been engaged to write the music for a Francis Ford Coppola musical film, "One From the Heart" (1982) and Brennan worked at Coppola's Zoetrope production company.

Heartattack and Vine is on my top-5 favourite list of Tom Waits albums and it's also one of the first Waits albums that I bought on vinyl back in 1988 / '89. Bruce Springsteen had led me to this album when he included the beautiful ballad "Jersey Girl" on his 1986 live box set, and I became curious to hear the original version.

The album shows in several ways a 'new' Tom Waits. All of his previous albums are stylistically linked in a singer / songwriter, blues, and vocal jazz framework, but this one is his first electrified album. The title track and the first track start with a raw bluesy rock and r&b guitar and feauture a Tom Waits who almost spits out his words accompanied by a completely different sound stemming from percussion and trombone - an r&b backbone. The style is still centered around his narratives, the stories of lost destinies, and there is still a lot of vocal jazz in the music but the compositions have become simpler, more direct, rawer, almost like a type of garage rock, and in that way functions as a transitional album to a more experimental side to his music. You may wonder what The Pogues would have sounded and looked like had this album not been released.

The album is Waits' second to be included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Mojo 3 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Blue Valentine" (1978)

Blue Valentine
release date: Oct. 1978
format: cd (1990 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]
producer: Bones Howe
label: Elektra Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Somewhere (from 'West Side Story')" - 2. "Red Shoes by the Drugstore" - 3. "Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis" - 4. "Romeo Is Bleeding" (live) - 5. "$29.00" - 6. "Wrong Side of the Road" - 8. "Kentucky Avenue" - 10. "Blue Valentines"

6th studio album by Tom Waits following Foreign Affairs (1977) with the almost constant of one year in between releases and for the fifth time with Bones Howe in the producer seat.

Blue Valentine is one of his best known and at the same time one of his most celebrated albums from the 70s, and for a reason. On his previous albums, he was always this fixated persona as a kind of a drunken homeless sitting at the piano, and the arrangements were all jazz-oriented with the piano at the centre of the songs. On this, it's still vocal jazz, blues and singer / songwriter material, but it's the first time you encounter electric guitar on a Waits album - and he plays it himself. On the opening track, Waits is heard singing two roles: his usual deep, hoarse and rusty voice and then a brighter singing voice in response. The change lies in both form and content, with more focus on ballads with string-and-horn arrangements (not really chamber pop) in jazzy versions. On the content side, he has kind of left behind his heartbreak songs, always evaporating a special Bukowski / Kerouac vibe from the 50s and early 60s, and instead there is focus on a more contemporary everyday street life, and the general feeling is to meet a more dramatic songwriter and composer.

Waits and Bette Midler were never really an official couple, although they were often seen together from 1976 to '77, but in the spring / early summer of '77 he met his 'soul-mate' in a then young and unknown Rickie Lee Jones, who hung out at Waits' old venue, The Troubadour on the outskirts of Los Angeles. She may be thought of as the one he sings about in songs #2 and #4, while Waits and his chambermaid Chuck Weiss ["Chuck E's in Love"] on the other hand, are believed to be her source of inspiration for her acclaimed debut Rickie Lee Jones (Feb. 1979). During the spring and summer of '79, Waits and Rickie Lee were still dating, but their unhealthy lifestyles of drugs and alcohol took their toll, and Jones may have become heavily addicted to string substance abuse during this period, which ultimately led to Waits quitting their relationship in the Fall of '79.

It's quite difficult to pinpoint selected songs as this is an album with no weak tracks on it, and it's somewhat of a landmark in Waits' career after witnessing the new musical winds with the influx of new wave and punk rock, which involved a changed view of the music industry.

Blue Valentine is a great place to start if you're unfamiliar with this great modern musician.

[ allmusic.com, Classic Rock 3,5 / 5, Uncut 4 / 5, Record Mirror 4,5 / 5, Mojo 5 / 5 stars ]

Tom Waits "Foreign Affairs" (1977)

Foreign Affairs
release date: Sep. 24, 1977
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Bones Howe
label: Asylum Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 2. "Muriel" - 3. "I Never Talk to Strangers (feat. Bette Midler)" - 5. "A Sight for Sore Eyes" (4 / 5) - 6. "Potter's Field" - 7. "Burma-Shave" - 9. "Foreign Affair" (4 / 5)

5th studio album by Tom Waits following one year after his landmark album Small Change is also his fourth consecutive album with Bones Howe as producer.

Once again Waits produces a fine collection of songs, although my impression tells me that the album is a bit of a repeat of what he has released up until this point, which in a way might sound like he is stagnating, with no real musical development, but one could then argue that he is simply sticking to a highly original style, and why necessarily change what has proven to work?

The album differs from his other releases by being close to a concept album with a detective-narrator, Nickel, who is an eyewitness to a 'film-noir-Chandler-esque-murder-story' of sorts. Bette Midler and Waits formed a couple in the years '76 / 77 and she sings on track #3.

Some artists don't need to show much artistic development - especially when they continue to make fine and relevant songs, and this album do contain several fine compositions like the ones highlighted above.