Tom Waits - "Bad As Me"
January 21st 2012 02:31
The cigarette scarred, whisky graveled voice of Tom Waits is probably one of the most recognizable voices in music. I have always admired Waits even if I feel his last few albums of early part of this century were not his strongest releases. However, "Bad As Me" is a cracker of a record that reminds me of some of sounds of his earlier work coming out of the late seventies and early eighties.
Some have credited Dylan as the best poet in music. These people have certainly never listened to Waits. His almost avant garde performance style of wordplay mixed with his graveled croons allows the words to have greater impact and create their own musical line filling the spaces in between the song structure. Tom Waits sorrowful blues takes you to the slums of a cold New York city playing in dank blues bars to a few old barflies and lost souls. Still, a man of his years, he comes across as wounded and in need of love. He has once again created a mood that really only allows this to be played when you are alone and have the blues yourself.
Tom Waits as a musician knows exactly the sounds he wants from his tracks. Whether it’s horn fueled romp of the album’s opener “Chicago”, the avant garde/sideshow theme music of “Raised Right Men” in which you can make comparisons to Nick Cave’s darkly moodful track “Red Right Hand”. The upright bass midnight blues on “Taking At The Same Time” also features Waits actually singing with a clean, high toned voice and the rockabilly swagger of “Get Lost”, each track has a variety while complimenting each other.. “Hell Broke Luce” is a venomous track where Waits spits out his words and reminds me of some of his material from the eighties and is a stand out track along with the albums title track and sad, washed out blues of the albums finale “New Year’s Eve”
In what is his first album of original material in over seven years, it’s possibly one of his best albums in nearly twenty years. A stand out record that and one that cements the legend status Tom Waits deserves for his contribution to modern music.
Some have credited Dylan as the best poet in music. These people have certainly never listened to Waits. His almost avant garde performance style of wordplay mixed with his graveled croons allows the words to have greater impact and create their own musical line filling the spaces in between the song structure. Tom Waits sorrowful blues takes you to the slums of a cold New York city playing in dank blues bars to a few old barflies and lost souls. Still, a man of his years, he comes across as wounded and in need of love. He has once again created a mood that really only allows this to be played when you are alone and have the blues yourself.
Tom Waits as a musician knows exactly the sounds he wants from his tracks. Whether it’s horn fueled romp of the album’s opener “Chicago”, the avant garde/sideshow theme music of “Raised Right Men” in which you can make comparisons to Nick Cave’s darkly moodful track “Red Right Hand”. The upright bass midnight blues on “Taking At The Same Time” also features Waits actually singing with a clean, high toned voice and the rockabilly swagger of “Get Lost”, each track has a variety while complimenting each other.. “Hell Broke Luce” is a venomous track where Waits spits out his words and reminds me of some of his material from the eighties and is a stand out track along with the albums title track and sad, washed out blues of the albums finale “New Year’s Eve”
In what is his first album of original material in over seven years, it’s possibly one of his best albums in nearly twenty years. A stand out record that and one that cements the legend status Tom Waits deserves for his contribution to modern music.
Tom Waits Bad As Me
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