The Inconsiderate Mixtape: Tom Waits

I've been going through my album collection alphabetically, grabbing the first album in each letter group that i think you all need and writing down the reasons. I basically committed to doing only one album by each artist but i knew i would eventually hit a snag. When pressed, i can pick a favorite by most any artist. However, there are a few that have produced such a long string of fantastic albums that i just can't pick just one. Tom Waits is one of them.

So i'll just try to do a quick run through of all my favorites in this 37-year career. Those who are familiar with his work will probably find ways to praise and curse my choices and for those who are not, i hope this gives you a little direction on what is surely a long and twisted path. So put on your pasties and g-string and let's go!

CLOSING TIME :: 1973

Take a look at the cover of Closing Time. That is exactly what this album sounds like. It's the sound of a late night bar filled with all the drifters that have no home and everyone else that just don't want to go home. It's bourbon, cigarettes and a lonely ol' world. His smokey voice, tinkering piano and longing lyrics make him seem like a character written for a movie much more than anyone in real life.

THE HEART OF SATURDAY NIGHT :: 1974

Album number 2 is a sort of sequel to the first one. Judging by the cover again, i guess this is what happens when he steps out of the bar after Closing Time.

NIGHTHAWKS AT THE DINER :: 1975

His third album is musically right along the lines of his first two. But this one is special. It was recorded live with a small audience, essentially setting up a night club in the studio. What you get is a little more whimsical Waits. The songs are loose and so is the tongue, sharing stories and jokes between the songs. It's very intimate and entertaining. You get the feeling you're right there, perhaps enjoying a steak.

[Waits put out three more albums in this similar style then released "Heart Attack and Vine" which found him in a seriously transitional state. The piano ballads were still there but there was also a strange and heavy percussion added to his music and the voice had drifted from a rasp into a growl. This was the mark between two very distinct parts of his career. The crooner was almost completely gone and in its place was ... ]

SWORDFISHTROMBONES :: 1983

This was the beginning of Waits Mach II. Here the torch songs are replaced by twisted tales of twisted characters. The piano and strings are replaced by sounds sometimes indescribable. It's the sound of the kind of circus people develop phobias over. It's dark and scary and like nothing you could ever dream up. But he did.

RAIN DOGS :: 1985

This is where the new Waits figures out what he can do. The sounds you find here would be heard on each of his following albums (though not always on the same ones). Here you can find the weird circus of its predecessor but there's also a more tender side. Some of the songs are prettier but they're still just as strange as should be expected. His approach is a little scatterbrained here but every song is of such a high quality, the album is cohesive in its brilliance.

[Throughout the 90's and 00's, Waits sprinkled his discography with various live albums, film soundtracks and music for a play based on a story by William Burroughs. They're all great in their own way but the regular albums he put out in this time has been the most-focused run of his career, as if this is the "real" Tom Waits that had been trapped inside because the world just wans ready for him.]

BONE MACHINE :: 1992

This album may be special to me because it was the first Tom Waits album i heard (thanks to Mtv of all things). But beyond my nostalgia, this is one of his finest and most cohesive albums. The music has been stripped down to boneyard sounds and guitars that sound like they're scoring some lost Western-Sci-Fi-Horror film. It all sounds like a nightmare of the most intriguing sort.

MULE VARIATIONS :: 1999

Here's your trivia for the day: Bone Machine won the grammy for "Best Alternative Music Album;" Mule Variations--his next proper album though 7 years later--won the grammy for "Best Contemporary Folk Album." I don't know what that means exactly but i find it interesting. This album is a little more subdued than it precessor. It's as beautiful and strange as anything he's ever done.

ALICE :: 2002

Alice was released simultaneously with Blood Money so they are really two parts of the same album. Blood Money is essentially the heavy side of Mule Variations and Alice the tender side. The songs here may be tearjerkers but not like you've heard before (the forbidden love of "Fish & Bird" anyone?).

REAL GONE :: 2004

Somehow, Waits managed to strip his sound down even more than before. This is all crash, yell, stomp and growl. The lyrics are somewhat secondary here at times as the vocals become more percussive and are featured almost as just another sound. To be honest, this album isn't as strong as some others but it shows that after more than 30 years and nearly 20 albums, Tom Waits is still moving forward, trying new things and making albums like nobody else.

So there's my Waits in a Nutshell; hope it helps. More than any other artist, Waits has been consistently brilliant and sigularly unique. His weakest album will always be better than most other artists at their best. So to sum it up, what Tom Waits album should you take home? Pick one.
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"Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night" :: 1975