When I found out that Tom Waits had a new album in the works, there wasn't really any doubt that it would shoot straight to the top of my list of current albums to be reviewed. And here it is.
Bad as me --- Tom Waits --- 2011 (ANTI-)
It's been seven years since Waits' last studio recording, “Real gone”, and doesn't it feel like it? In between we've had the three-volume rarities and unreleased collection, “Orphans: Brawlers, bawlers and bastards”, and the live album “Glitter and doom”, but this is his first album of new, original material to hit the streets since 2004. Has it been worth the wait (sorry)? Come on, seriously now: you call yourself a Waits fan and ask that question? What? You're
not a Waits fan? Well, we'll have to see what we can do about that now, won't we?
“Chicago” gets us off to a flying start, with the usual eclectic mix of instruments you expect to find on a Waits album --- accordion, trombone, clarinet, vox organ (whatever
that is!), vibraphone, harmonica, tablas, pump organ --- in fact, as Waits albums go, this is fairly restrained in its use of the weirder things he usually makes to create his musical soundscapes. The opener flies past really quickly, almost before you have a chance to appreciate it, but it's a fast, uptempo, happy song with Waits as ever on top form, gravelly voice not dulled by the years, or the time spent away from the recording studio.
“Raised right men” is a boogie/blues number, with screeching organ and insistent banjo, while “Talking at the same time” slows things down for a typical Waits tune, with clarinet and trombone leading the way, vibraphone painting a delicate picture in the background. On this song, Waits reverts to the higher-pitched voice he employs on songs like “Shore leave”, proving that he doesn't always have to growl, and is just as unique and satisfying singing like this. The brass give the effect of walking down a dark street, perhaps somewhat the worse for drink, as the rest of the music swirls around like the way the street spins when you're, shall we say, tired and emotional, and trying to find your way home. Sounds like a pretty slick upright bass in there too. Class.
“Get lost” showcases Waits at his most manic, circa “Bone machine”, with a jazzy, boppy number carried on guitar and trombones with some pretty mad organ doing its thing too. A totally insane banjo solo (yeah, I know!) gives way to an equally effective guitar solo in a song that's under three minutes long. Definite fifties vibe in there, with Waits channelling the ghost of Elvis, and beating the King at his own game. It's a slow, lazy stroll then, after the headlong dash of the previous track, for “Face to the highway”, with some special guitar work and a busy bassline, while “Pay me” is another drunken ballad in the style of “Innocent when you dream”, with accordion, violin and harmonica meshing in a way they seldom can to create a fragile, fractured song of true and simple beauty.
Only one man can produce Waits, and that's Waits, but since 1999's "Mule variations" he's been joined at the production desk by his longtime partner and wife Kathleen Brennan, counterbalancing his often lunatic, discordant style and making sure the songs fit into some sort of format, the calm ying to his raging yang, as Mr. Burns once said. “Back in the crowd” is another slow, almost Mexican song with lovely acoustic guitar and castanets, plus some fine banjo adding real spice to the track, while all Hell is let loose for the title track, with Waits again the mad musician, crazy guitar, kettle drums and his falsetto rising above it all like some sort of insane king surveying his equally mad kingdom. Ah, Waits, ye've been away for too long!
Showing his total musical versatility, “Kiss me” is a gentle, electric piano-led ballad very much in the vein of “Old boyfriends”, which was sung by Crystal Gayle on the soundtrack to “One from the heart”, on which she co-starred with him. A real slow jazz and blues number, it has some truly sparkling piano work in it, then the trumpets and trombones announce the arrival of the joyous “Satisfied”, as Waits envisions life after him with none of the maudlin regrets or fears most of us have when contemplating our own end. Great, out-of-control organ helps the song along, a real fun ride.
Waits is not known for long songs, and nothing here is over four minutes, and all but three tracks under that. Short, snappy, concise, Waits is like a mugger who hits you, robs you and legs it before the law come after him, running off with a mad laugh down the street: hit and run music, certainly, and the better for it. You're just finished delighting in the madcap fun of “Satisfied” when the beautiful simplicity of “Last leaf” hits you upside the heart, a delicate, simple song in which Waits sings
”I'm the last leaf on the tree/ The autumn took the rest/ But they won't take me.” Stunning imagery in a truly exceptional song, the more impressive due to its understated nature.
“Hell broke luce” kicks out the last restraints on Waits and he goes totally crazy, a kind of march or parade as he struts along and asks the question we all want to know the answer to:
”How many ways can you / Polish up a turd?” Angry guitar breaks in for the first time --- that would be the one and only Keith Richards making his presence felt --- making this the heaviest track on the album by a long way, with a pretty repetitive melody that somehow stays interesting, like poetry being recited on stage, backed by drummers who must be high on something. Gloriously weird.
And then it ends, with another slow, gentle accordion-led ballad, the wonderful “New Year's Eve”. Beautiful banjo work again gives this song a slightly Mexican/Mariachi feel, and the only bad thing about this song is that it signals the end of the album. I could listen to twice this many tracks, and more.
Not that I expected anything less, but “Bad as me” is a hugely triumphant return of the king of the offbeat, a complete vindication of Waits' music and a joy to his many fans. It's strangely appropriate that Waits again takes the music world by storm in the year in which he has been, finally, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His reaction was vintage Waits as he grinned “They say I have no hits and I'm difficult to work with, like it's a bad thing!”
This album is going to get listened to a LOT in this house, I can tell you! It's truly great to see him back, at the top of his game again, and let's hope we don't have to wait (again, sorry!) too long for his next opus.
TRACKLISTING
1. Chicago
2. Raised right men
3. Talking at the same time
4. Get lost
5. Face to the highway
6. Pay me
7. Back in the crowd
8. Bad as me
9. Kiss me
10. Satisfied
11. Last leaf
12. Hell broke luce
13. New Year's Eve