Bone Machine is definitely a top 5er but i wouldn't consider it his best work.
and there's something that's been bugging me for a while, guess i'll spit it out. i really don't like Rain Dogs in the context of his entire career. it's a nice pastiche of a number of styles he explored but it's piled together pell-mell, with almost no discretion given to the clarity or depth of the songs. i think that, while Anywhere I Lay My Head is easily my all-time favorite song of his, there are just a few too many numbers from that album that land on my shit list, from Downtown Train to Blind Love, etc.
it's almost like half the album continues in the same direction as Swordfishtrombones, but by side B it veers interminably into the cheesy, ballad-laden crap that made his first few albums just a nightmare to digest. and unlike that era, he can't pull off the crooning lament of his pure pop darlings like Martha anymore, it just sounds like he's attempting a perverse, horrific version of Springsteen.
if it wasn't for the closing number i'd say it's easily my number one most detested Waits album. i do not get the hype.
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