Originally Posted by Janszoon

I disagree. Bone Machine was the first Tom Waits album I ever bought (though I had listened to a "best of" of his early stuff quite a bit prior) and it immediately blew me away. There was no "what the **** is this ****" moment, just a "wow, this is amazing" moment. I think it's a good starting point because it has a little bit of everything style-wise. I'd imagine that's why other people think it's a good place to start as well.