Tom Waits

[stip]

Hoist that rag is fine, but it's never come close to cracking my favorites. In general though, I tend to not go in as much for that sort of hellishly scratchy aesthetic



How it's gonna end, Make it Rain, Day after tomorrow (which I rarely listen to but can't deny the power of) and Don't Go Into That Barn are favorites. I like hoist that rag, green grass, trampled rose, and dead and lovely, but I don't love it.



Bad as me is really a tale of two albums. Chicago, New Years Eve and Hell Broke Luce are incredible, as is Tell Me (one of my all time favorite lyrics by any artist ever) from the deluxe version. And I like After you Die from the deluxe as well. The rest is a perfectly serviceable record, but there's nothing that draws me back.

[Strat]

Hoist that rag is fine, but it's never come close to cracking my favorites. In general though, I tend to not go in as much for that sort of hellishly scratchy aesthetic



How it's gonna end, Make it Rain, Day after tomorrow (which I rarely listen to but can't deny the power of) and Don't Go Into That Barn are favorites. I like hoist that rag, green grass, trampled rose, and dead and lovely, but I don't love it.



Bad as me is really a tale of two albums. Chicago, New Years Eve and Hell Broke Luce are incredible, as is Tell Me (one of my all time favorite lyrics by any artist ever) from the deluxe version. And I like After you Die from the deluxe as well. The rest is a perfectly serviceable record, but there's nothing that draws me back.

I think bad as me is a great record, its just very standard issue late day Tom Waits. its like a greatest hits of what he does, which lowers the quality of the record from great to good.

If that makes sense.

[McParadigm]

More like a conservative, tempered reminder than a greatest hits.

[epilogue]

Like I said, it feels like a career retrospective from the artist; a moving backward to go forward. It's comfortable and snuggley. I really like it. But it's not his best work. It's a representation of the things he has done. Sort of like Collapse Into Now for REM. If BaM ends up being the last record, it makes a lot of sense to me.

I hope it's not the last Tom Waits record.

[LoathedVermin72]

Waits seems ageless to me. I don't even know how to judge where he is in his career.

[McParadigm]

I think the plan was to explore those earliest rock and roll days in the 50's, and bring some of that into his aesthetic. Lie to Me did some of that. Tell Me does it well, as do a few other tracks on Bad As Me. But where he used to be able to turn the occasional bare bones design into something simplicity-pure, Bad As Me often just feels underconsidered or incompletely written. Worse, half the romps feel mannered and tired, and half the ballads feel like rerecordings by an artist who wished he'd had access to this great studio when he cut them the first time. Pay Me is fantastic. Bad As Me is a fun song. Hell Broke Luce actually feels chaotic, for a change. Chicago is template and not particularly inspired, but fun. But it's such a kind record, and so full of finesse-over-soul moments. Nothing gets broken besides Luce.

Last Leaf doesn't have half the heart That Feel does, and Keith Richards recorded his parts for this album separately, in a posh studio. That feels like a microcosm for what's wrong, here.

[epilogue]

The only reason I'm even entertaining the notion that Bad As Me could be his last record is that it has that career spanning vibe to it (again see Collapse Into Now). If he had made Real Gone 2, I wouldn't be thinking he's anywhere close to finished.

But when you take music out past the desert and stars like he did with Real Gone and then you come back with something so... familiar and accessible and... easy (for lack of a better word), you have to wonder what that means. What's next? If anything...

[Strat]

God I hope something.

[epilogue]

God I hope something.

Your lips to god's ears, buddy.

[stip]

The only reason I'm even entertaining the notion that Bad As Me could be his last record is that it has that career spanning vibe to it (again see Collapse Into Now). If he had made Real Gone 2, I wouldn't be thinking he's anywhere close to finished.

But when you take music out past the desert and stars like he did with Real Gone and then you come back with something so... familiar and accessible and... easy (for lack of a better word), you have to wonder what that means. What's next? If anything...

He said in some interview or another that he altered his approach on this record as a challenge from Kathleen to see if he could write a bunch of simpler stripped down 3ish minute songs.

[Strat]

The only reason I'm even entertaining the notion that Bad As Me could be his last record is that it has that career spanning vibe to it (again see Collapse Into Now). If he had made Real Gone 2, I wouldn't be thinking he's anywhere close to finished.

But when you take music out past the desert and stars like he did with Real Gone and then you come back with something so... familiar and accessible and... easy (for lack of a better word), you have to wonder what that means. What's next? If anything...

He said in some interview or another that he altered his approach on this record as a challenge from Kathleen to see if he could write a bunch of simpler stripped down 3ish minute songs.

Yea he went off in some interview saying "people have shit to do these days" and dont have the time to listen to longer albums. lol. They have to get groceries and what not.

I think he succeeded. Now its time to get back to business.

RIP Pearl Jam

[LoathedVermin72]

The only reason I'm even entertaining the notion that Bad As Me could be his last record is that it has that career spanning vibe to it (again see Collapse Into Now). If he had made Real Gone 2, I wouldn't be thinking he's anywhere close to finished.

But when you take music out past the desert and stars like he did with Real Gone and then you come back with something so... familiar and accessible and... easy (for lack of a better word), you have to wonder what that means. What's next? If anything...

He said in some interview or another that he altered his approach on this record as a challenge from Kathleen to see if he could write a bunch of simpler stripped down 3ish minute songs.

thanks a lot kathleen

[epilogue]

The only reason I'm even entertaining the notion that Bad As Me could be his last record is that it has that career spanning vibe to it (again see Collapse Into Now). If he had made Real Gone 2, I wouldn't be thinking he's anywhere close to finished.

But when you take music out past the desert and stars like he did with Real Gone and then you come back with something so... familiar and accessible and... easy (for lack of a better word), you have to wonder what that means. What's next? If anything...

He said in some interview or another that he altered his approach on this record as a challenge from Kathleen to see if he could write a bunch of simpler stripped down 3ish minute songs.

Oh really? That's fucking fascinating. And changes everything. This album is an unqualified success if that's the case. Challenge accepted and mission accomplished.

[Strat]

I cant find the quote i heard but i think it was an audio interview i heard on NPR. But this kind of points to that same thing as well

Pitchfork: The songs on Bad as Me are mostly compact. In some ways they kind of feel like singles.
TW: My wife Kathleen wanted to do 12 three-minute songs. Get in, get out. No fucking around. Because people don't have a lot of time. The way I think is more like, "Oh, you got time for 19 songs on there? Put 19 songs on there, baby." She says," No, no, no. Twelve." Like the eggs, 12. You can do a lot in two minutes. So I'm starting to get more economical as I go. Don't overstate, don't restate.

[McParadigm]

The songs on Rain Dogs average around 3 minutes. The songs on Bad As Me do not.

[Strat]

The songs on Rain Dogs average around 3 minutes. The songs on Bad As Me do not.

Theres also 50 songs on rain dogs

[Strat]

Although rain dogs is only about 10 minutes longer in running time

[epilogue]

Rain Dogs is so fucking good.

[epilogue]

Inside a broken clock
Splashing the wine with all the rain dogs...

Maybe one of my all time favorite lyrics.

[Jorge]

An album like Bad As Me was inevitable. The guy had been pushing forward relentlessly since the early 80s. I wonder what he's gonna do next-- I really didn't like that new song he wrote for Letterman.