Red Mosquito

Tom Waits Ranked!

Bone Machine
Blood Money
Real Gone
Mule Variations
Swordfishtrombones
Rain Dogs
The Heart of Saturday Night
Bad As Me
Heartattack and Vine
Alice
Franks Wild Years
Blue Valentine
Small Change
Big Time
Closing Time
One From The Heart
The Black Rider
Foreign Affairs
Nighthawks at the Diner
Night On Earth

Oh man

Mule Variations
Rain Dogs
Bone Machine
Blood Money
Heart of Saturday Night
Real Gone
Heart Attack and Vine
Bad As Me
Franks Wild Years
Blue Valentine
Swordfish Trombones
Closing Time
Nighthawks
Small Change
Foreign Affairs
night on earth

You've got Swordfishtrombones super low. I wouldn't have expected that.

durdencommatyler wrote:You've got Swordfishtrombones super low. I wouldn't have expected that.

There are some great songs on it but a lot of stuff i dont generally care for. I dont love the production on it either. Shore Leave, 16 shells, down, down, down, gin soaked boy are all great but other than that *shrugs*

Strat wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:You've got Swordfishtrombones super low. I wouldn't have expected that.

There are some great songs on it but a lot of stuff i dont generally care for. I dont love the production on it either. Shore Leave, 16 shells, down, down, down, gin soaked boy are all great but other than that *shrugs*

Interesting. I really would have thought you were into that record. Obviously, I goddamn love it. I think it's such a wonderfully complex and underrated album.

durdencommatyler wrote:

Strat wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:You've got Swordfishtrombones super low. I wouldn't have expected that.

There are some great songs on it but a lot of stuff i dont generally care for. I dont love the production on it either. Shore Leave, 16 shells, down, down, down, gin soaked boy are all great but other than that *shrugs*

Interesting. I really would have thought you were into that record. Obviously, I goddamn love it. I think it's such a wonderfully complex and underrated album.

i think surrounded by Rain Dogs and Wild Years kind of overshadows it. Both records i goddamn love.

Ill revisit. It has been awhile and its not one i reach for often.

Strat wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

Strat wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:You've got Swordfishtrombones super low. I wouldn't have expected that.

There are some great songs on it but a lot of stuff i dont generally care for. I dont love the production on it either. Shore Leave, 16 shells, down, down, down, gin soaked boy are all great but other than that *shrugs*

Interesting. I really would have thought you were into that record. Obviously, I goddamn love it. I think it's such a wonderfully complex and underrated album.

i think surrounded by Rain Dogs and Wild Years kind of overshadows it. Both records i goddamn love.

Ill revisit. It has been awhile and its not one i reach for often.

Oh, I totally get it. The dude has so much to love and I think a lot of it appeals to different people for different reasons. There's no wrong answer here. I probably like Swordfish more than Franks Wild Years. But both are great. And I'm sure you agree.

I should listen more to the production Swordfish. I just love the song craft on that record. It's so weird and awesome and painful. Soldier's Things is maybe one of his most heartbreaking songs. I just love SFT.

I will attempt this. I will inevitably have to rank something near the bottom, which will feel wrong.

Alice
Mule Variations
Small Change
Bone Machine
Real Gone (a monumental leap from where I would have ranked it when it first came out)
Blood Money
The Heart of Saturday Night
Rain Dogs
Swordfishtrombones
Foreign Affairs
Franks Wild Years
Heartattack and Vine
Blue Valentine
Closing Time
Bad As Me
Nighthawks at the Diner
One From the Heart
The Black Rider
Night on Earth

This is really tough. Any of the top three could be my number one depending on the day. "Foreign Affairs" is a personal favorite that I really, really wanted to rank higher, but the overlong spoken beatnik tracks really bog down its overall score. Swapping out those tracks and replacing them with "Meet Me in Paradise Alley," "Annie's Back in Town," and "With a Suitcase" (from a later session, I know, but I can dream) would make it an all-timer for me.

However, as I thought about the tracks on each of these albums on how they would affect my ranking, one thing became abundantly clear: it's been too long since I've listened to Tom Waits.

durdencommatyler wrote:

Strat wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

Strat wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:You've got Swordfishtrombones super low. I wouldn't have expected that.

There are some great songs on it but a lot of stuff i dont generally care for. I dont love the production on it either. Shore Leave, 16 shells, down, down, down, gin soaked boy are all great but other than that *shrugs*

Interesting. I really would have thought you were into that record. Obviously, I goddamn love it. I think it's such a wonderfully complex and underrated album.

i think surrounded by Rain Dogs and Wild Years kind of overshadows it. Both records i goddamn love.

Ill revisit. It has been awhile and its not one i reach for often.

Oh, I totally get it. The dude has so much to love and I think a lot of it appeals to different people for different reasons. There's no wrong answer here. I probably like Swordfish more than Franks Wild Years. But both are great. And I'm sure you agree.

I should listen more to the production Swordfish. I just love the song craft on that record. It's so weird and awesome and painful. Soldier's Things is maybe one of his most heartbreaking songs. I just love SFT.

All of the '80's albums sound kind of thin and airy to me -- maybe the CD transfers are just bad and the vinyl/iTunes/whatever masterings sound better, but either way I don't think it's a mixing/production issue. Have these albums been remastered? I feel like I've seen remasters of the Asylum and Anti- albums (none of which needed it, IMO), but haven't heard anything about the Island stuff, which could really benefit from it.

To my knowledge, no, they haven't been remastered yet. I agree that the remasters that exist are largely unnecessary.

I haven't heard any of these records on CD. The vinyl I have of Swordfishtrombones sounds amazing. Rain Dogs has a thinner quality to it but SFT should full to me.

Also, I want a vinyl reissue of Bone Machine that isn't remixed or anything. It's perfect as is. But it's hard to find on wax.

You guys are lunatics for even trying to rank these. Mine would look similar to KD's in a lot of ways, though. I'm surprised how high some have ranked Alice and Blood Money, tbh

Blood Money is exactly where I'm at.

Theatrical. Dark. Melodic. Poetic. Diverse. Strange. Haunting. It's musical theater and pop art at the same time. Plus it SOUNDS immaculate.

Also, I'm a giant sucker for the source material.

durdencommatyler wrote:Also, I want a vinyl reissue of Bone Machine that isn't remixed or anything. It's perfect as is. But it's hard to find on wax.

it looks as if Bone Machine and Black Rider are his only two albums (both Island) that never had a US pressing on vinyl (only UK/Europe) which makes them hard to find. makes sense at the time since both albums came from the early-90s when absolutely no one was buying vinyl.

Island will inevitably get off their ass and repress these, hopefully, if they still own the rights/masters. just hope they aren't waiting to bank off his death when they decide to do so (which seems to be the speculative case, since his Island years are regarded by a lot to be his best years, and they're the only ones that haven't been reissued)

bodysnatcher wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Also, I want a vinyl reissue of Bone Machine that isn't remixed or anything. It's perfect as is. But it's hard to find on wax.

it looks as if Bone Machine and Black Rider are his only two albums (both Island) that never had a US pressing on vinyl (only UK/Europe) which makes them hard to find. makes sense at the time since both albums came from the early-90s when absolutely no one was buying vinyl.

Island will inevitably get off their ass and repress these, hopefully, if they still own the rights/masters. just hope they aren't waiting to bank off his death when they decide to do so (which seems to be the speculative case, since his Island years are regarded by a lot to be his best years, and they're the only ones that haven't been reissued)

Bone Machine is my favorite album of all time. A pressing shows up on ebay from time to time at a decent enough price but I never pull the trigger because I'm afraid of getting screwed over by the seller.

durdencommatyler wrote:

bodysnatcher wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Also, I want a vinyl reissue of Bone Machine that isn't remixed or anything. It's perfect as is. But it's hard to find on wax.

it looks as if Bone Machine and Black Rider are his only two albums (both Island) that never had a US pressing on vinyl (only UK/Europe) which makes them hard to find. makes sense at the time since both albums came from the early-90s when absolutely no one was buying vinyl.

Island will inevitably get off their ass and repress these, hopefully, if they still own the rights/masters. just hope they aren't waiting to bank off his death when they decide to do so (which seems to be the speculative case, since his Island years are regarded by a lot to be his best years, and they're the only ones that haven't been reissued)

Bone Machine is my favorite album of all time. A pressing shows up on ebay from time to time at a decent enough price but I never pull the trigger because I'm afraid of getting screwed over by the seller.

don't blame you at those prices. ebay can be a crapshoot when it comes to used records, because it's very dependent on the seller's ability and knowledge of the typical grading scale. i've gotten some records that are graded "Very Good ++" that would typically sit in the "VG-" category, and vice versa. if you find a seller that is a proper record store (or positive history of selling records), then your odds are pretty good. but sometimes you find people who are basically antique shop vendors who are just trying to get rid of product, and that's where it gets iffy.

bodysnatcher wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

bodysnatcher wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Also, I want a vinyl reissue of Bone Machine that isn't remixed or anything. It's perfect as is. But it's hard to find on wax.

it looks as if Bone Machine and Black Rider are his only two albums (both Island) that never had a US pressing on vinyl (only UK/Europe) which makes them hard to find. makes sense at the time since both albums came from the early-90s when absolutely no one was buying vinyl.

Island will inevitably get off their ass and repress these, hopefully, if they still own the rights/masters. just hope they aren't waiting to bank off his death when they decide to do so (which seems to be the speculative case, since his Island years are regarded by a lot to be his best years, and they're the only ones that haven't been reissued)

Bone Machine is my favorite album of all time. A pressing shows up on ebay from time to time at a decent enough price but I never pull the trigger because I'm afraid of getting screwed over by the seller.

don't blame you at those prices. ebay can be a crapshoot when it comes to used records, because it's very dependent on the seller's ability and knowledge of the typical grading scale. i've gotten some records that are graded "Very Good ++" that would typically sit in the "VG-" category, and vice versa. if you find a seller that is a proper record store (or positive history of selling records), then your odds are pretty good. but sometimes you find people who are basically antique shop vendors who are just trying to get rid of product, and that's where it gets iffy.

Yeah, I've been burned before. But it's difficult. I want that fucking record so badly!

*listens to bone machine*

Strat wrote:*listens to bone machine*