I think it's a pretty safe assumption that all of here at HBBB like Tom Waits. Now, with a back catalogue as impressive and extensive as TW's is, there is sure to be some descrepancies as to our favorite albums. I pose the question to all of you.....What is your favorite Tom Waits album, and why??
10 comments:
I'm sort of torn with this one because Mr. Waits has multiple phases of his career that are equally amazing yet so different. Do you chose the best record from each phase and then compare those top choices? Or is it better to approach this question with a hand jab into a album rack and pick whatever comes out? My choice of Closing Time was made partly by both methods. The latter Waits albums (Alice and Mule for example) have amazing songs but albums from the earlier period hit a mood that to me stands a bit above the rest.
As an aside I'd like to assert that the Soundtrack from One From The Heart is pretty topnotch in itself.
Nighthawks at the Diner= most listened (old)
Mule Variations = most listened (recent)
Blue Valentine = makes me lay on the floor
The Black Rider = best way to clear out a record store so you can go home
I gotta agree with no name and ha ha in terms of the different phases of TW. THere are some albums I just havent heard as much as others but my most listened to albums are Small Change, Blue Valentine (old) and Mule Variations (new). but then again, everything old is new again.
"Whats he building in there?"..........
i loved Alice tons when it first came out, but at this point i think it's largely pretty weak and sometimes even annoying. I think that, unless you prefer pre-Swordfishtrombones (aka pre-"the weirdness") era Waits, The Bone Machine is definitely his best word (better than Rain Dogs even). In this era (which is all that i really care about) i'd prob go:
1. Bone Machine
2. Rain Dogs
3. Franks Wild Years
4. Mule Variations
5. Swordfishtrombones
My love for Alice may be mostly or even entirely sentimental, but 'weak' & 'annoying' are words that just beg to be fought. It's a far, obvious cry from the 80s & on modernist/nightmare-circus Tom, for sure, but it was great to hear so much direct feeling & honesty from the guy. If Tom Waits wants to make a record to offer up some life lessons, I wanna learn them.
But I'm gonna get behind the Mule on this one, cuz that's the record that turned me on in the first place. Before that record, I'd first heard Tom Waits No Name's dad walked into his room & handed him the Island Years best of comp. that had just been released at the time. No Name put it on & it pretty much scared the shit out of us, nothing more. Mule Variations was more my speed then when it came out a little later, and it still is today.
i know what you're saying as far as "direct feeling & honesty" goes, but honestly, i just don't really get that from Alice. If anything, to me it's the opposite, really -- very theatrical and even more detached from Tom Waits the human being than usual ("Poor Edward", "Kommienzuspadt"). I love the title track, and "Lost in the Harbour" is a mixtape classic, but overall i just think the album doesn't quite do it. On that note, i agree that it is one of the reasons Mule Variations DOES succeed, because I do feel like i'm getting a little more "real Tommy." I also think that the new box set succeeds here as well -- i'm shocked at how awesome it is, each disc offering tons of great moments reflecting all sides of the man we know and love, plus a few more. anyway, my two plus cents.
but you're right that using the phrase "weak and annoying" to describe anything produced by Tom Waits is begging for attack, because pretty much everything the man does is awesome, for sure.
I have to go with Rain Dogs... it introduced me to Tom Waits, and is my favorite of his. Close behind, though, is Blood Money, which I find myself listening to quite often. I only recently picked up Closing Time but I really love that one too.
Orphans, followed by Swordfishtrombones, followed by Mule Variations. Then Rain Dogs, then Frank's, then Bone Machine. I've argued this with myself for years. But Orphans is by far my favorite work of his for the sheer depth and diversity.
I'll say it's a three-way tie between Closing Time, Rain Dogs, and Bone Machine.
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