and loves him some prince!

the new 3 cd set is such a delight.
brawlers is sort of hit or miss with me, but bawlers and bastards make me weep like a 4 year old. the man can do no wrong.

DigUBetterDead said:

Yes, the new album is great. Wouldn't call him a genius though. He just understands Captain Beefheart. Look between the lines and you'll see that he's basically been serving up updated versions of Bone Machine for the last fourteen years. And I do find the very idea of Tom Waits writing straight-forward, direct political songs (The Road to Peace - laudable though his sentiments are, and great though the song is), a tad ridiculous. Since when's he been Jim Kerr?

the beefheart comparison is so stale, though. he's been going his own strange ways for decades now. he can do what beefheart never did and if i wasnt so sedated right now id write out a whole list of things. later.

funny you should mention 'bone machine' because its the album that got me into waits all those years ago. i think he's definitely working in an idiom with the weird instrumentation and glitchy production, but orphans really showcases ALL his sounds and phases. the work of an artist that has grown creatively!

off the top of my head:

lord ive been changed- its pretty rare for waits to go straight gospel and he does it here with such soul and style

buzz fledderjohn- a backroads song with nighttime on the porch country ambient sound

you can never hold back spring- the ghost of louis armstrong

army ants/on the road- spoken word. one weird (even mentions bone machine) one in beatnik style

its over- jazzy. very reminiscent of his early albums.

i dislike when my favorite artists turn political. its just a personal preference. and so i REALLY didnt enjoy 'road to peace'. 'the day after tomorrow' was tolerable and lovely even!
but his best war song is definitely 'hoist that rag' for me. not overt. clanging and booming. thats what i like.

and in a perfect world 'lie to me' would be a #1 single. i dance my ass off to that number!

DigUBetterDead said:

You may find those Beefheart comparisons "stale", but they're still very valid. Doesn't mean the results aren't exhilirating though - for the most part.

I loved The Day After Tomorrow. Very very moving. And then there's "Sins of the Father". Why he had to turn around and write a very flat, boring state of the world address after those two subtle songs is beyond me. Still, better that than Neil Young's "War is Stupid" album.

Is this new material, or a compilation?

Shapeshifter--Tom Waits has been doing the same thing since Swordfishtrombone, not Bone Machine!

His voice is obviously similar to Beefheart, but he also brings his 70's history to the table, which is a mix of poet/troubadour and lounge singer.
I think his range separates him from his influences (Louis Armstrong & Charles Bukowski are other obvious ones). Like Prince (or many artists) you can pinpoint his influences, but if you take his work as a whole, he's a highly individual artist.

Of course, whether he's a genius or not is an argument that could last forever.

NDRU said:

No, I strongly disagree with you that he's been doing the same thing since Swordfishtrombones. His style began to change on Heartattack & Vine, and then developed on Swordfish. It then evolved progressively on Raindogs (the two albums are very different - Swordfish is way more melodic) and then again on Frank's Wild Years, and yet again on Bone Machine (where everything started to sound like he'd invented instruments out of bits of scrap metal he'd found in his barn). Since Bone Machine none of the albums have really moved on that much musically - apart from Alice, but that was a stage musical anyway. That's not to say the albums aren't compelling (I'm not as big a fan of Mule Variations mind you), but he's pretty much stuck in his furrow.

The Beefheart reference has more to do with the music than his vocal style, which is rooted in jazz and blues. Listen to Sun Ra's "Salute to Walt Disney" and tell me you can't hear the influence.

Bastards, Brawlers etc is both a new album (lots of new songs) and a compilation of rarities. Buy it. Tis great.

Shapeshifter said:

I guess I see his current style as conceptually spawned from Swordfishtrombone, but I see what you're saying about the invented instrument stuff, which definitely did come from Bone Machine.

I'd say Mule Variations along with Alice (like you mentioned) take a step back into more traditional musical territory, though.

I wasn't a big fan of Real Gone--it was just plain noisy. Some of the material was good, but it was very hard to listen to.

Actually I've been enjoying his 70's music lately, and I'd always been a fan of the 80's records previously.

NDRU said:

The 70s stuff had something he went and - probably deliberately - lost in the 80s. He'll never make another Blue Valentines again, and more's the pity.

I didn't think too much of Real Gone until I saw him live. He did the songs much better then. I recommend you tracking down some bootlegs from the European 2004 tour. Usually kicked off Make It Rain, which is pulverising live.

you know in the late 70's/early 80's he stopped drinking altogether and didnt want to be seen as that caricature of wino crumpled over a piano or deranged lounge singer. swordfishtrombones and raindogs and frank's wild years really saw him beginning to explore the whole weird soundscape he dances around now. i really love all his albums. some more than others, but i can say *I* think he's a legend. the one musician who has never let me down (save for the odd song choice) but thats really saying something.

i think he's a tremendous songwriter and yarn spinner.

saw him on the mule variations tour '99. tied for best show ive ever seen!

DigUBetterDead said:

I would have loved to have seen that. I had to make do with bootlegs instead (all of them superb) because Tom's got this thing about playing the UK - or, rather, NOT playing the UK. His one show in London in 2004 was the first time he'd come here since 1987 (when I also saw him). Can't imagine him being back too soon.

DigUBetterDead said:

It's amazing the transformation he underwent. You could argue that his songs were stronger & more universal in the 70's, but with Swordfishtrombones he moved beyond traditional songwriting and albums that are merely collections of songs. He also removed himself from his somewhat retro style and became something more timeless. He created something of a Waits universe that he's been residing in ever since.

I love Road to Peace.

I don't feel like it's a far stretch from his soldier - love letter songs...except this time he sounds like a drunk telling you about all these events and trying to make sense of it all. It isn't anthemic; there's almost a humor to how specific he is in relating these stories; the rambling length. Just my take.

I'm still pretty immersed in Orphans - and I'm eternally thankful that he took the change in direction he did with Swordfish. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for another such paradigm shift. I can't think of another artist from his time who, when I'm listening to their new stuff, I don't find myself making allowances or listen with the 'already converted' ear. If Tom isn't being interesting, he's doing something undeniably emotional or touching.

Even if y'all think he's been doing the same thing since whatever album...he's been doing it very well and acquitting himself nicely...

PeteZarustica said:

Of course he has. His albums sound unique and they're never less than interesting, but Road To Peace has to be the most conventional song he's ever written. Anyway, like I said, I can take politicising from him because he does it in a very intelligent way. Unlike Neil Young.

Shapeshifter said:

Neil Young has written some great songs, but he's one I just don't get into. I've even wondered if maybe he's retarded.

NDRU said:

Of late, his last five albums have been either outright dreadful or piss poor, and these highlight his severe limitations - the reed thin mosquito whinger voice, the dreadful, nonsensical lyrics, the lumpen tunes, his lumpen backing musicians. He's going around in concentric circles, chasing his own tail. Twice. There's Let's Make Another Harvest Neil. And There's Let's Make Another Ragged lory Neil. It's all retreads with ever dimishing returns. His War Is Stupid album was embarassingly bad - and that's just the infantile lyrics.

Shapeshifter said:

I take it you will forego the 'Raw' version of Living With War? Being very coy here.

I finally deleted it from my PC today. The highlight was 'God Bless America' - and that's not good news.

PeteZarustica said:

.... Which isn't on the Raw version of Living With Genital Warts, I think.

Neil Young is set to release the first volume of his oft delayed Archives series in the autumn, which I WILL be getting, because he used to be good ... when dinosaurs walked the earth. Oh, and the legendary Massey Hall 1971 gig is getting an official release next month. It has better versions of most of the Harvest album on it - not that I'm a fan of Harvest; I like but two songs on that so-called "classic" (I call it twee dreck).

Hope the old fucker gets around to FINALLY releasing Time Fades Away on CD.