Trollheart

One of the longest hiatuses in Waits's career, five years would elapse between his last album and his next, but he would make up for that by producing two albums in 1992, one of which was a studio album that would go on to develop his interest in experimental music and lead to some amazing songs, but which has already been reviewed by me in full here http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1309289. The other would be his second movie soundtrack, though this one would be mostly instrumental. Having worked with director Jim Jarmusch on “Down by law”, Waits hooked up with him again to score the movie “Night on Earth”, about five different taxi drivers and their passengers in five different cities on the same night. Kathleen had, again, some small input into this album, though she had obviously acquired a taste for songwriting, which she would carry later into the writing of Bone machine, on which you can certainly hear her love of Beefheart begin to really take hold, and to exert its power over her husband.

Night on Earth Original Soundtrack --- 1992

It gets underway with a very “Singapore”-like track, with congas and accordion, slow in the vein of “More than rain” but with that sort of cracked, growly voice Waits had adopted since Franks wild years. “Back in the good old world” starts the album off well, and is one of only three vocal tracks as we move into “Los Angeles mood (Chromium descensions)”, with marimba and cello straining along the sides of the track like drunks carefully navigating their way along a sidestreet, feedback shooting back like the glaring headlights of cars that narrowly miss them on their inebriated stroll. It's a slow, almost heartbeat rhythm that drives the piece, with some wailing guitar added in, while the companion piece, “Los Angeles theme (Another private dick)” runs on smoky lonely sax from that right into a sort of Peter Gunn idea, with rockabilly guitar and horn. It shuffles along nicely as the guitar and sax trade licks like two gangsters trying to outboast each other.

You can hear moods from Rain dogs and Franks wild years go off here and there, and I'd wonder if some of this music was not written during those sessions but never used? “New York theme (Hey, you can have that heart attack outside buddy)” switches things up with a piano lead yet retaining the basic melody of the previous track, quite a honky-tonk idea in the music, sax still there but somehow it's more upmarket in a way yet sleazy too. Great bassline, like the one from “Diamonds on my windshield” but slightly slower. This of course then gives way to “New York mood (New haircut and a busted lip)” which takes the theme but slows it right down, removing the piano and allowing the sax to take centre stage as the bass follows along.

There's a big, crunching, striding swing melody then for “Baby, I'm not a baby anymore (Beatrice theme)” with some banjo but driven on the alto sax of Ralph Carney, who plays a hell of a lot of instruments on this album. “Good old world (waltz)” is exactly that, a slow waltzing rhythm driven on accordion and violin that circles around like two dancers oblivious to everything around them, then “Carnival (Brunello del Montalcino)” kind of takes that basic melody and puts a ragtime spin on it, throwing in organ and strange horn sounds as well as odd percussion in that way Waits does so well. The second vocal track is next, as Waits croaks his way through a rather tender and French-tinged “On the other side of the world”. There's been so much instrumental music at this point that the first time you hear him sing again it comes as something of a surprise, but of course a pleasant one. Some great minimalistic banjo here from Joe Gore, to say nothing of Carney's sublime clarinet work.

There's another version of “Back in the good old world”, this time an instrumental, possibly a little indulgent though it is a great song, and then we're travelling again with “Paris mood (Un de fromage)” which kind of tippy-toes around the main theme with really less French flavour about it than some of the other tracks, despite the accordion used, but my favourite on the album, certainly title-wise, is “Dragging a dead priest”: the images it conjures up! Musically, it has that great screeching, scratching sound that, yeah, does give the impression of someone hauling a heavy weight through the streets. Very atonal and some cool off-kilter percussion really makes this track stand out I feel. Sort of a moan in there for good measure (are you sure this priest is dead?) then “Helsinki mood” skitters along as if hoping not to be seen, the same basic theme again running through the music, which is fine I guess as they're all supposed to relate to one another.

“Carnival Bob's confession” has a nice uptempo feel to it and steps away from the main theme, with some cool horns and crashing drums again a la “Singapore”. Climbing violins really help as does some accordion and some other weird instruments I'm not even going to try to identify. We then get a vocal version of “Good old world (Waltz)”, and it's quite nice to hear it. Reversing that, then, the album closes with an instrumental version of “On the other side of the world”.

TRACKLISTING

1. Back in the good old world (Gypsy)
2. Los Angeles mood (Chromium descensions)
3. Los Angeles theme (Another private dick)
4. New York mood (Hey, you can have that heart attack outside buddy)
5. New York theme (A new haircut and a busted lip)
6. Baby, I'm not a baby anymore (Beatrice theme)
7. Good old world (Waltz)
8. Carnival (Brunello del Montalcino
9. On the other side of the world
10. Good old world (Gypsy instrumental)
11. Paris mood (Un de fromage)
12. Dragging a dead priest
13. Helsinki mood
14. Carnival Bob's confession
15. Good old world (Waltz)
16. On the other side of the world

It's been a while since I listened to this album, and I must say I find that it has a lot of flaws. While the music is great, so much of it is merely variations on a central theme that it's easy to get the tracks confused. I know that's because of the nature of the movie, where each story crosses over into the other and all end up intertwined into one great tapestry, but I feel this doesn't give Waits the freedom to be as versatile as he normally is. I wouldn't go so far as to say that once you've heard one track on this album you've heard them all, but in some cases --- far too many --- it does seem as if he's just repeating himself, altering the melody slightly or adding things in, but basically sticking to the one general tune.

There are exceptions of course. “Dragging a dead priest” is nothing like anything else on the album, and “Carnival Bob's confession” stands out on its own, but much of the rest can be almost lumped together as one melody, and that's a pity, because while Waits does infuse certain pieces that refer to cities with something that makes it their own, identifies with it --- New York with the bar piano, Paris with the accordion, etc. --- it's a little cliched, a little expected, and one thing we have learned about Waits is that he usually shies from the usual, the typical, and surprises us at every turn.

Although it's a soundtrack album, and can be given something of a pass because of that, it's still miles behind One from the heart, which was a much more varied and interesting album. Less than six months later he would enter the studio again and record a real Waits album, that would reaffirm his delight in confounding, thrilling and surprising us, and though this is a good soundtrack it would soon be forgotten in the wake of the release of Bone machine, as it should be.

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The Batlord

That is one of the ****tiest covers I've ever seen on a non-rap album.

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Trollheart

What? It's the Earth. At night. Night on Earth. Geddit? Wait till you see the next one!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Josef K

My problem is with the font more than anything.

Trollheart

Blame the movie....

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Trollheart

Been a while since I logged on to this journal, which is not like me, but there’s so much else to do. However, I need to get back to it, and now I realise I missed out two of Waits’s albums as I prepared to move on, so I need to check those out now before I get to his next studio recording proper. Although both of these albums contain songs that have been released before, they are not simply greatest hits packages, as we will see.

The Early Years, Volume 1 --- 1991

Although released in 1991, the songs on this album were in fact all recorded prior to the release of his debut in 1973. Some of them appear on that album, some on the second, but there are songs here too that never saw the light of day until now. It kicks off with “Goin’ down slow”, a lazy, laconic almost folk ballad played on acoustic guitar with some fine steel too. It’s typical of the kind of thing you’’d find on Closing time, a song that sounds like it was just written as he waited for someone or for the day to end, or his glass to be refilled. Without a band at this point, Waits plays all the instruments here himself, and yet makes the album sound less acoustic than you would expect. “Poncho’s lament” is another Country/folk style swinging ballad with the great line ”I’m glad that you’re gone/ But I wish to the lord that you’d come home.”

(Yes, yes! The videos are back! The mob has spoken...)
His voice sounds less ragged and growly than it would later become, and the slighltly embarrassed cough at the end, left on deliberately one must assume, really reinforces the idea of a man writing up his demo before trying for an album deal. The first song though that really shows the talent Waits would become famous for is “I’m your late night evening prostitute”, where he considers the idea I guess of whoring out his music. It’s driven on soulful piano that would resurface in part on “A sight for sore eyes” on the Foreign affairs album. When he sings ”Drink your Martini and stare at the moon/ Don’t mind me: I’ll continue to croon” he’s singing for all the pianists and guitar players in bars and clubs who pour their souls out to an uncaring crowd and receive perhaps a smattering of applause if they’re lucky. Again, he would revisit this idea, though instrumentally only, on “In shades”, nine years later on Heartattack and Vine. Back to Country slow bopping with the pretty hilarious “Had me a girl”, in which he lists all the places he’s visited and had romantic interludes: ”Had me a girl from France/ Just wanted to get in her pants” and "Had me a girl from Chula Vista/ I was in love with her sister.” I particularly love the idea at the end, when he runs out of ideas or just doesn’t care and sings ”I had me a girl from … mm. Mm.mm mm mm mm…” Classic!

Next we have the first of the songs that actually made it onto his debut, as we hear a stripped down version of “Ice cream man”, pretty much the same melody but somewhat slower, played on the piano and guitar. “Rockin’ chair” is another lazy ballad on acoustic guitar, kind of Delta blues feel to it, kinda sounds like it would have worked well on Nighthawks. “Virginia Avenue” is a slower version of the song which appears on Closing time and as I mentioned earlier, a slight change in the lyrics makes ”What’s a poor boy to do” into ”What’s a poor sailor to do”, other than that it’s pretty much the same song. It’s followed then by “Midnight lullaby”, which again is little different to the song that ended up on his debut.

“When you ain’t got nobody” is a new song, as such, though, and highlights his cynical attitude towards life but shot through with the humour that would become his trademark. ”When you ain’t got nobody/ Anybody looks nice” he opines. ”Doesn’t take much to make you/ Stop and look twice.” Another piano solo piece, another slow song and one that could really have been a classic had he included it on the album. I love the almost-shocking ”I’ll be your Dick honey/ If you’ll just be my Jane.” People under a certain age won’t get that, but I smiled. Back to the early versions of songs that made it onto Closing time with a slightly barebones “Little trip to Heaven (on the wings of your love)”, the lounge/bar-room idea filtering in here nicely; the whistled verse is nice. Maybe he couldn’t think of any more lyrics but it gives the song some new life and a personal touch. I think on the finished version there’s a sax solo there?

A man who would appear in later songs, and inform a full album, “Frank’s song” is the first we hear of him, whether he’s the same one we are introduced to later or not I don’t know, but Waits here approaches the whole idea of marriage as he does on Nighthawks as he declares ”We used to go stag/ Now he’s got a hag.” It’s a short, acoustic ballad which leads into one of the best on the album, the hilarious “Looks like I’m up Shit Creek again”, with a slow COuntry flavour that ticks along really nicely and presages the likes of “Ol’ 55” and “Hope that I don’t fall in love with you”, perhaps why he didn’t include it. Certainly wouldn’t have got any radio airplay! I love it though; it just drips self-pity and recrimination. The album ends on “So long I’ll see ya”, showing the beginnings of the guitar style he would develop and the vocal slightly more loud and a little manic, pointing the direction he would go in over the years. It also features some of the scat singing he would use in the, um, early years.

TRACKLISTING

1.Goin’ down slow
2.Poncho’s lament
3.I’m your late night evening prostitute
4.Had me a girl
5.Ice cream man
6.Rockin’ chair
7.Virginia Avenue
8.Midnight lullaby
9.When you ain’t got nobody
10.Little trip to Heaven (on the wings of your love)
11.Frank’s song
12.Looks like I’m up Shit Creek again
13.So long I’ll see ya

You could say this is bad value for money, seeing as four of the thirteen tracks on it are ones you would by now have already heard --- that’s a third of the album ---- but although those four songs are not really sufficiently different from the final versions to really merit inclusion, the other songs are all new and this album opens an interesting and unique window into the thought and songwriting processes of a man who was at the time struggling to find his voice and make a name for himself. So historically at least, this is an album that any Waits fan should really want to hear.

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Trollheart

The second album in this series would be released two years later, but about six months before his next album, and would contain songs that not only would feature on Closing time but the followup to that also. Like volume one though, it also has a lot of tracks that are new at first listen, again recorded around 1971, before he even had a record deal.

The Early Years, Volume 2 --- 1993

The first two tracks we know, as they’re both on the debut, though “I hope that I don’t fall in love with you” is played slower but somehow sung a little faster than the version that would end up on the album, sort of more relaxed. He also hums some of the lines, probably having not quite worked out all the lyric at that point. The version of “Ol’ 55” is quite different though with a folky guitar intro, unaccompanied by any percussion, the vocal more low-key, chords a little different. Nice soft guitar solo too. Definitely worth hearing. He also gets the lines mixed up when he sings ”Lights all passing/ Trucks are a flashin’” which makes it all the more honest and demo-like.

“Mockin’ bird” is a song I’ve never heard though, and brings in the chimy. echoey piano we would become so familiar with during the early part of his career. More whistling, with a song the most uptempo on the album so far, quite bouncy and almost poppy in its way, while “In between love” slows it all down again with an acoustic ballad on guitar, but “Blue skies” is really just retreading the ground trod on “I’m your late night evening prostitute” and, to a smaller extent, “Goin’ down slow”. It’s something of a disappointment for an artiste of Waits’s calibre and originality to find that he is here plundering the same basic melody for a different song. But he does it so seldom, if ever other than here, that I guess we can forgive him. The only song that made it on to [i]Nighthawks at the diner/i], “Nobody” is here sung pretty much the same as it is on that incredible live event, piano backed and with a sad, drawly vocal from Waits.

With a sort of Simon and Garfunkel pop sensibility, “I want you” is a decent little song but a little below par for Waits, not a lot in it;, it’s quite short too. The next four tracks are all from his second album, and I must say the version of “Shiver me timbers” is worth hearing for the different way he approaches it, none of the laidback piano --- this is far more staccato --- and no orchestra of course, then “Grapefruit moon”, never one of my favourite songs on The heart of Saturday night is pretty much a carbon copy of the eventual version that was published, minus the descending end run on the piano, which is weird because it ended up being such an integral part of the song. I’m interested to see how the original “Diamonds on my windshield” sounded, as this is the first time I have heard this album, and I feel that song rides so much on the bassline it will be hard to duplicate in this stripped-down demo.

Well he does a good bass on it, the vocal kind of more uptempo jazz than it turned out, a sort of muttered one on the album. Bringing the piano in on it is something different for certain, but I don’t think it really works and I guess he came to the same conclusion as it’s not on the “real” version. Think he may have added lyrics here, not completely sure but then Waits can write on the fly, we all know that. The last song then off The heart of Saturday night is “Please call me baby”, a bit rough and ready on the piano but basically the same song, though the orchestral backing on the final version turn out to be what makes the song in the end.

(Sorry for the crap video, but it was the only version I could get that wasn't off Nighthawks...)
That leaves two tracks, and I feel that one of them may be yet another off Closing time but we’ll see shortly. The penultimate track is “So it goes”, nice little folky acoustic ballad, kind of reminds me of later Steve Earle, echoes of “Halo round the moon”. And I was right: the final track is called “Old shoes” but became “Old shoes (and picture postcards”) on the debut, and to be fair there’s not much difference in the version here and the one that ended up on his album.

TRACKLISTING

1.Hope that I don’t fall in love with you
2.Ol’ 55
3.Mockin’ bird
4.In between love
5.Blue skies
6.Nobody
7.I want you
8.Shiver me timbers
9.Grapefruit moon
10.Diamonds on my windshield
11.Please call me baby
12.So it goes
13.Old shoes

If what I said about volume one being poor value for money, viewed from one perception, is true, then this second volume really rips the buyer off. No less than eight tracks are “old” songs, more than half the album. Some of the originals are worth hearing, some are not, and as for the new songs, well I’m sorry to say that generally they’re a poor lot really. I certainly prefer volume one, but even at that, the two albums taken together give a real snapshot of a man on the cusp of greatness, of a master songsmith honing his trade and finding his place, and show us the kind of musician, and the eventual enigma and phenomenon Tom Waits was going to become.

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Trollheart

I guess it’s no longer possible to avoid this. 1993 began a trio of albums that made me really strain to keep liking Waits. I’m not alone: many people consider this his weakest period. Perhaps the stress of bringing out two albums in the same year, on the same month, on the same fucking day told on him, and although that was 2002 I believe the rot, as it were, set in here at the end of ‘93. Mind you, there was a bright spot just before the millennium closed, but more of that later. Right now it’s time to gird my loins, take a deep breath and dive into what is unquestionably my least favourite of any Tom Waits albums.


The Black Rider --- 1993
Maybe it’s something to do with plays. Franks wild years was, as I have already related, the first Waits album I wasn’t head over heels in love with, and that was based on a play. So too is this, and the two I mentioned in 2002. It could be coincidence but I wonder. Anyway I found this album extremely inaccessible when I first heard it, but to be fair I only remember listening to it once, so maybe time will have softened my attitude towards it. Maybe I’ll get it. Or not.

Based on the play of the same name written by William S. Burroughs, the album is the soundtrack to the life of a man who chooses to make a pact with the Devil but is outwitted by him in the end, as are all mortals, and he ends up going mad. You can check out the full story here The Black Rider - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia if you wish. It’s another long album, with twenty tracks in all, though some are quite short, a few just over one minute. Interestingly, after her almost total collaboration with him on Bone machine, Kathleen Brennan is conspicuously absent from the songwriting here.

We open on “Lucky day overture”, Waits bellowing as a carnival barker against a slow brass waltz background, quite FWY in theme. No singing at all; Waits shouts the vocal completely with a wild abandon I haven’t heard since “Going out west", and the old-style carnival atmosphere is reinforced by his use of a calliope, then we’re into the title track, which has Waits sound like a German or something (not surprisingly: this is based on a German folk tale after all) against a Rain dogs style rhythm driven mostly on organ. Some of Waits’s old faithful return for this album, such as Joe Gore, Ralph Carney and here, Greg Cohen who does a superb viola. “November” opens in saw and accordion, then we hear for the first time on this album the voice we all know so well, dark broken and morose as the accordion plays out its sad tale. Some really great banjo from Waits adds to the feel here, as does the saw, which sounds like the whistling moan of a soul haunting the song.

“Just the right bullets” staggers along on a threatening, compelling melody as Pegleg, the Devil makes his entrance and the bargain is sealed, as is the hero’s fate, did he but know it. Suddenly it all goes into overdrive with a fast western-style theme, galloping along in a “Ghost riders in the sky” sort of idea till it slows back again with echoes of Franks wild years then speeds up for the frenetic conclusion. A spooky chamberlin and Doug Neely returning on the saw colours “Black box theme”, the first instrumental (if you don’t count the opener, which had plenty of vocals if not singing), cello, bassoon, French horn and banjo all adding to the weirdness. A slow, haunting little piece, perhaps underlying the pact just agreed, then on of the few covers Waits ever did comes in the shape of a totally out-there version of “Tain’t no sin”; it’s really quite unsettling. No percussion at all, just clarinet and a synth; marimba is mentioned but I don’t hear it.

“Flash pan hunter/intro” is another short instrumental with very much a stately, funereal sound, contrabassoon and clarinet merging with the sounds of seagulls overhead, a real dirge, then Waits and Burroughs collaborate on “That’s the way”, with a dark organ motif and an almost spoken vocal from Waits. It runs directly into “The briar and the rose”, whose music reminds me of something off I think One from the heart, but I can’t quite place it. A slow, ragged ballad, the kind Waits excels at, while “Russian dance” is, well, a Russian dance with Waits’s inimitable touch. It’s good fun but at over three minutes it’s way too long. Another instrumental is next, this being “Gospel train/Orchestra”, which oddly enough does not seem to involve Waits at all, if the credits are to be believed. If so, it may be unique in all of his work.

Kind of reminds me of a slower version of “Bride of rain dog”, bits of “Singapore” mixed in and led on a thumping trombone. I can’t believe Waits didn’t play on this. They must just have missed his credit out. More Franks Wild Years style for “I’ll shoot the moon”, a Country-flavoured waltzy ballad, quite nice, then there’s another teamup with Burroughs as he writes the lyric for “Flash pan hunter”, more of that spooky saw from Neely and some fine organ from Francis Thumm, with again a sort of crying chant like we heard on FWY. Back to that sort of western/Country rhythm for “Crossroads”, while “Gospel train” is just weird. Look, I know weird is Waits’s middle name, but this is weird. Almost the same musical phrase going all the way through, and I think he’s quoting part of Curtis Mayfield’s “People get ready” in there. Plus there are train whistles. Yeah.

At almost five minutes though it quickly wears out its welcome and after an eighteen-second “interlude” we’re into “Oily night”, which seems not to feature Waits himself either. It’s got the deepest vocal, almost death metal in a way, and surely that has to be Waits? Other than that it’s like someone scraping a paintstripper off a wall or something. Pretty unnerving. Frownland would probably love it. Again it’s way, way too long, but we’re getting near the end now, and I have to say I’m still glad this is the case. Much better though is “Lucky day” which again has the “Frank” vocal and a swaying carnival rhythm, reminds me very much of “Innocent when you dream”. I’d actually pick this as my favourite on the album, though that’s not hard as I pretty much dislike most of it anyway.

It’s just Waits and Greg Cohen to close out the album then, with first the ballad “The last rose of summer” and then a short instrumental, “Carnival”, as our hero ends up in the Devil’s Carnival, having lost his mind after shooting his bride to be. Suitably manic and frenetic, it ends the album more or less as it began, at the fairground, though this time a dark, evil, malevolent one from which there is no escape. Somewhat like this album.

TRACKLISTING

1.Lucky day overture
2.The Black Rider
3.November
4.Just the right bullets
5.Black box theme
6.T’ain’t no sin
7.Flash pan hunter/intro
8.That’s the way
9.The briar and the rose
10.Russian dance
11.Gospel train/Orchestra
12.I’ll shoot the moon
13.Flash pan hunter
14.Crossroads
15.Gospel train
16.Interlude
17.Oily night
18.Lucky day
19.The last rose of summer
20.Carnival

When I first heard this album I really hated it. It began, as I said in the intro, for me anyway a period of nine years over which I would struggle to try to like Waits’s albums but find myself fighting a losing battle. Apart from one bright spot in 1999, when he released “Mule variations”, and I was able to say after six years I had listened to one of his albums I really liked. But that then was followed by two more in quick succession that tested me sorely again.

Perhaps if I was more familiar with the play this is based on I might enjoy it more, get into it more, but even though, listening back to it here, I don’t quite hate it as much as I did, it’s still a very inaccessible album to me and not one I would tend to put on again unless for review purposes. I find it too avant-garde, too experimental, and sadly for me this was the way, mostly, Waits’s music was to go for the foreseeable future. Personally, I regard it as one of his weakest efforts, and even though I can appreciate it a little better now, much of it still annoys me.

Not to mention that I used always to think the track “Black wings” was on it. It’s not: that’s on Bone machine, so I don’t even have that. So there’s not a lot I can say about this album, other than if you’re I guess a Burroughs fan or a fan of German folktales you may very well enjoy it. I’m not, and I didn’t. I doubt I ever will.

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Trollheart

Over a nine-year period the one shining beacon in what became a shroud of darkness and hard times for me with Waits's music was the album he released in 1999, which returned somewhat to his previous style, mixing elements from Rain Dogs with Blue Valentine and even older albums like The heart of Saturday night. It's not that there wasn't any experimentation on it --- one of his cleverest, weirdest and darkest songs, “What's he building?” is on it --- but after the like of The Black Rider and the two albums to follow this, it felt like he had come home, if only for a brief rest and to change his shirt before heading back out into the world of weird and avant-garde.


Mule variations --- 1999

This is an album where Kathleen returns to exert her influence, or add her muse, depending on which way you look at their relationship, in a way that she had not done since 1992's Bone Machine. She writes twelve of the sixteen tracks with him, and co-produces the album. And yet, it's a much more organic feel than with Bone Machine, which for all its beauty sounded harsh, stark and almost mechanical at times. There's a lush almost calm over some of the recordings here, and it ends up being as much a folk as a rock album.

“Big in Japan” gets us underway, and in case you were wondering, no, it's not a cover of the Alphaville song! Everything here is original. Reminding me in ways of “Such a scream”, it's a big, echoey, bouncy percussion as the song struts along with a sort of falsetto vocal from Waits, some screeching guitar ad some cool trumpet from Ralph Carney. There's a real Rain Dogs feel then to “Lowside of the road”, a slow, grinding, dark haunting tune that trips along on banjo and guitar, Waits on the optigon organ, and back to his slurred, nearly drunk vocal. “Hold on” slows everything down with a soft ballad reminiscent of “Time”. At five and a half minutes it's almost the longest track on the album but is well beaten by the next one, which at just shy of seven minutes is I think the longest Waits track to date.

“Get behind the mule” sees him in full flight vocally, rasping out the lyric with a sort of phased effect and some fine harmonica taking it along in a sort of Delta Blues manner; I hear echoes of “Gun street girl” here, then the first song he writes solo on the album is “House where nobody lives”, a lovely piano-driven ballad with more than a hint of gospel about it and a fair slice of Country too. This is very like something you would have heard on Closing time, while “Cold water” is more in the Heartattack and Vine style, a boppy, bar-room drinking song sparked by sharp guitar in a very blues vein. He actually nods back to Blue Valentine when he sings ”Slept in the graveyard/ It was cool and still” whereas on that album he was whistlin' past it. The next two are his own creations also, with “Pony” another piano ballad like something off Franks Wild Years, with a nice dobro line from Smokey Hormel and then I have already written extensively about the genius that is “What's he building?” which you can read here http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1164094, but suffice to say it's one of his oddest, best, and most disturbing songs when you read between the lines, and certainly a standout on the album, perhaps my favourite.

“Black market baby” slides along with its hands thrust deep into its pocket, head down, trying not to make eye contact, turns a corner with a quick look over its shoulder and is gone, leaving us standing in the darkness and pretty much unprepared for the sort of tribal-influenced “Eyeball kid”. This album is, I think, the first time Waits has used the DJ technique of spinning decks, which began with “What's he building?” and continues on through the next two tracks. I don't really see their impact to be honest, but someone more familiar with their use may do. Even at that, it's a new direction for the man who is forever kicking over signposts that say “Don't go this way” and gunning his car towards the “Bridge out” sign. A simple piano ballad harking back again to Closing time” for the tender “Picture in a frame” and things stay slow and folky for some fine banjo on “Chocolate Jesus”. In fact, to an extent we might as well be in 1973 now, as “Georgia Lee” could easily have found a home on his debut album, another piano ballad with some mournful violin and a slow, growly vocal. An accusatory lyric: ”Why wasn't God watching?/ Why wasn't God listening? / Why wasn't God there for Georgia Lee?”

Time to up the tempo now, as “Filipino box spring hog” (don't ask!) bops along with wild abandon, Waits almost tipping his hat to Queen's “We will rock you”. I'm serious. Slowing down again then with another piano ballad, “Take it with me”, with Waits at his quietest and most reserved, and we end on a cheery gospel track, as “Come on up to the house” just exudes joy and acceptance and welcome. And for a brief time, welcome back Waits: you've been away too long. He even throws in the signature piano riff from “Innocent when you dream” to finish it off. Wonderful!

TRACKLISTING

1. Big in Japan
2. Lowside of the road
3. Hold on
4. Get behind the mule
5. House where nobody lives
6. Cold water
7. Pony
8. What's he building
9. Black market baby
10. Eyeball kid
11. Picture in a frame
12. Chocolate Jesus
13. Georgia Lee
14. Filipino box spring hog
15. Take it with me
16. Come on up to the house

If Waits fans are divided into two camps (and I'm not saying they are), it's probably between those who prefer the “early” material, say up to about 1985, and those who enjoy the more experimental side he began to show from Swordfishtrombones on, thanks to Kathleen and her Beefheart influence. I am of course firmly in the former section; I love everything he did from Closing time up to and including Rain dogs, but after that I felt he began to move in a direction I was not completely happy with. Franks Wild Years was where things began to change for me, and really, it never quite recovered from that on.

Bone machine was an album I did enjoy, and of course the soundtrack album was good too, but the Waits I knew and loved and had come to know was a long way away from me now, and so this album came as a really unexpected and welcome relief from all the harshness of the ones either side of it. It's a return to the “real” Waits music, for me, and it's rather a pity that it was then followed by two albums which, if memory serves, I totally disliked. As we will see.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Trollheart

Some artistes would think it an achievement to release two albums in the same year. Devin Townsend of course releases about ten every week, but Waits went one better than most here, having both this and the subsequent album, Alice, put out on the very same day in 2002. Both are basically music based on two plays, one of which would crop up in a later album four years later, and to be honest as they both came out simultaneously I have no idea which to do first, so I'm just going with the listing Wiki has on his discography, which puts this one first.

Blood money --- 2002
Again, it's a co-production venture between Waits and his wife, and this time she co-writes every single track with him. What was that about “better off without a wife”, Tom? This is another of the “experimental era” Waits albums I have such a hard time with, and I know for a fact that I only listened to both of these albums once, and was singularly unimpressed with them. For me, Mule Variations was the exception to a rule that held true from late 1993 till mid 2002, and again my faith was sorely tested. Let's see if anything has changed in thirteen years.

Perhaps appropriately, given how these albums affected me, the opener is called “Misery is the river of the world”, and has a real Rain Dogs rhythm to it, a sort of slow stomp and a kind of sullen vocal. There is a great line right away: ”If there's one thing you can say about mankind/ There's nothing kind about Man.” Kind of sets the tone I guess but a real Waits gem. He uses the calliope again here, giving everything a real carnival feel, though not a happy one. Must admit, I don't hate this track as much as I remember doing. It is pretty dour though, and the next track “Everything goes to Hell” doesn't really inspire any confidence that it may get any more upbeat. Uptempo yes; the rhythm is very “Jockey full of bourbon” with some fine bass and a spoken vocal from Waits. Nice bongos and timpani percussion and something that sounds like a marimba or xylophone.

“Coney Island baby” has a nice twenties-style slow trumpet intro, lounges along nicely in a New Orleans jazz style and accompanied by lovely cello, and once again he uses that piano line from “Innocent when you dream” right at the end. Creeping along like a drunk jester sidling along the darkened streets, “All the world is green” has another nice trumpet line and Waits's vocal is restrained and almost gentle, then the tempo jumps for “God's away on business”, which I have to be fair, really follows the lines of songs like “Singapore” and “Rain dogs”. Good though. Also relatively short. Great title too. A slow, weaving horn section drives “Another man's vine” (nod back to “Just another sucker on the vine”?) with a very Franks Wild Years vocal. “Knife chase” is an instrumental that manages to conjure up that very image as it shuffles along, something (castanets?) making a sound like someone out of breath. Genius.

“Lullaby” is a beautiful little gentle ballad with cello and violin backing up Waits's acoustic guitar, and it leads into “Starving in the belly of a whale”, which jumps along with fiddle and bells, and the sort of vocal that, again, we hear on “Singapore”, the deep, gruff, ragged one he often uses. Almost a lullaby in itself, “The part you throw away” is a gentle cello-led ballad with a low, husky vocal and a sort of folky slow swing to it, and things slow down further for “Woe”, less than a minute and a half with a passionate slow vocal from Waits backed by cello and violin before we head into the last instrumental, “Calliope” which, rather appropriately, is played by Waits on the calliope, with the album closing on “A good man is hard to find”. Running on a slow organ line with trumpet and trombone backup, it again has a certain twenties feel about it, very slow jazz mixed with big band, ends the album okay but maybe a little of a damp squib to some extent.

TRACKLISTING

1. Misery is the river of the world
2. Everything goes to Hell
3. Coney Island baby
4. All the world is green
5. God's away on business
6. Another man's vine
7. Knife chase
8. Lullaby
9. Starving in the belly of a whale
10. The part you throw away
11. Woe
12. Calliope
13. A good man is hard to find

Meh, it's not as terrible as I remember. Maybe I just needed to give it a fair chance. Certainly no Black Rider, but equally no Mule Variations either. There are good tracks on it certainly, and it's a lot less rooted in the experimental than I had originally remembered. Given a few more listens I might actually come to like it, though I'm not promising myself anything. I suppose it must be accepted that the tone of the songs would have to be tied in to the theme of the play, so perhaps if I knew more about that, I might appreciate the album more. But German expressionist film and theatre is not my thing, so I won't be going there.

Does make me wonder though whether I'll have the same semi-change of heart about the other album released on the same day? Speaking of which...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018