tim. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} o_song) wrote,@ 2007-01-20 19:50:00 |
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Top 10 of 2006. #02. Tom Waits - Orphans
Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, & Bastards
Anti Records
"Long Way Home"
(3:10, 4.69mb)
Disc 2, Track 3.
"Army Ants"
(3:26, 5.28mb)
Disc 3, Track 4.
These days, Tom Waits can just be Tom Waits and get away with it. He's in the business of being Tom Waits. He could release an album of emo covers and it'd probably be good, as long as it was clear that he was just being Tom Waits. His voice is still wonderful; he has the conventional singing ability of a wet balloon, but somehow manages to pull out complicated emotions from his songs using what he has left of his voice. He has a surprisingly versatile voice, does Tom Waits - by turns he can sound like a beatnik, like Louis Armstrong, or like a death metal singer.
Tom Waits' ability to release a 3CD boxset of rarities and still have it at the top of a whole bunch of people's top 10 lists is evidence not only of his songwriting ability but of his ability to be Tom Waits. "Long Way Home" is a beautiful thing that deserves dozens of covers (it was written for Norah Jones, who covered it a few years back). It has a stately, pretty melody, and the song feels like it's going nowhere fast, and is all the better for it; after all, it's a song about not hurrying here or there, and a love song at that. An accordion or harmonium, double bass, and light brushes of drums do the minimum necessary in the background, and Waits' growls are at their sweetest - on this song he sounds like your grandfather's beard when you were 5.
And the great thing about Orphans is that, across the 3 CDs of music, you get the most authentic and varied portrait of Tom Waits being Tom Waits that he's ever released as an album. You get the bawlers, brawlers and bastards - Waits being by turns sentimental, experimental, and just plain mental. He covers the Ramones and Leadbelly, goes down to Fannin Street, and gets all Kerouac. In a way, the most affecting and most surprising song is "Road To Peace", a forceful 7 minute ramble through the war between Palestinians and Israelis, Waits' first real adventure into topical song.
And perhaps the strangest, and silliest, is "Army Ants", where Waits reads out of a kids book about strange insects, over his usual minimalist musical style, that distinctive cross between beatnik jazz and bluesy Captain Beefheartisms. It's strangely fascinating to hear Waits' voice; you can hear his wicked sense of humour and his impeccable comic timing even when he reads out of a kids' book, and you get a sense of his humanism out of it. Somehow.
Tom Waits - Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers, & Bastards
Anti Records
"Long Way Home"
(3:10, 4.69mb)
Disc 2, Track 3.
"Army Ants"
(3:26, 5.28mb)
Disc 3, Track 4.
These days, Tom Waits can just be Tom Waits and get away with it. He's in the business of being Tom Waits. He could release an album of emo covers and it'd probably be good, as long as it was clear that he was just being Tom Waits. His voice is still wonderful; he has the conventional singing ability of a wet balloon, but somehow manages to pull out complicated emotions from his songs using what he has left of his voice. He has a surprisingly versatile voice, does Tom Waits - by turns he can sound like a beatnik, like Louis Armstrong, or like a death metal singer.
Tom Waits' ability to release a 3CD boxset of rarities and still have it at the top of a whole bunch of people's top 10 lists is evidence not only of his songwriting ability but of his ability to be Tom Waits. "Long Way Home" is a beautiful thing that deserves dozens of covers (it was written for Norah Jones, who covered it a few years back). It has a stately, pretty melody, and the song feels like it's going nowhere fast, and is all the better for it; after all, it's a song about not hurrying here or there, and a love song at that. An accordion or harmonium, double bass, and light brushes of drums do the minimum necessary in the background, and Waits' growls are at their sweetest - on this song he sounds like your grandfather's beard when you were 5.
And the great thing about Orphans is that, across the 3 CDs of music, you get the most authentic and varied portrait of Tom Waits being Tom Waits that he's ever released as an album. You get the bawlers, brawlers and bastards - Waits being by turns sentimental, experimental, and just plain mental. He covers the Ramones and Leadbelly, goes down to Fannin Street, and gets all Kerouac. In a way, the most affecting and most surprising song is "Road To Peace", a forceful 7 minute ramble through the war between Palestinians and Israelis, Waits' first real adventure into topical song.
And perhaps the strangest, and silliest, is "Army Ants", where Waits reads out of a kids book about strange insects, over his usual minimalist musical style, that distinctive cross between beatnik jazz and bluesy Captain Beefheartisms. It's strangely fascinating to hear Waits' voice; you can hear his wicked sense of humour and his impeccable comic timing even when he reads out of a kids' book, and you get a sense of his humanism out of it. Somehow.
