Tom Waits - Bone Machine

Opened a new world of music

One day in 1992 a couple friends and I were browsing through albums at our local record store when Bone Machine started blaring over the store's stereo. We all stopped and just listened to a couple tracks before asking the clerk who it was. Each one of us walked out with this CD in hand. Sixteen years later this is still one of my favorite albums and it gets regular rotation at home, in the car, and at work.

If you've never heard Tom Waits before, listen to the samples first. If you can handle his voice this is a must have.

March 20, 2008

Why bother reading this? Is five stars enough?

If you don't know who Tom Waits is, it's okay. However though, if you like an artist with his own voice, than Tom is your man. This guy, as a song writer (paired up with his wife, Kathleen Brennan), puts you in those situations, it's nearly impossible to explain, but one listen to songs such as Murder in The Red Barn, and it comes clear. It can be pretty scary too, and as a matter of fact, these songs about death can convey death in ways you never imagined. Nearly every death metal band can't touch this. Best of all, his lyrics are direct and easy to understand. Normally, one might criticize him for that, but despite all this, his songwriting is untouchable. It's just his magic that seems to work.

Okay, there are two "meh" piano ballads, with Tom Waits trying to croon. He was A great crooner back in the day (just check out Closing Time), but Whistle Down The Wind and A Little Rain are a bit grating.
There kind of forgettable, and his voice just doesn't work that well on these tracks. It may have some cool lyrics and meaning, but it doesn't sound that great to me. IF that's not good enough for you, then _____ you. I just don't care for it because I don't like the attempts to go back to his old crooning voice.

Aside from that, the rest of the stuff is pretty much gold. Murder In the Red Barn, Earth Died Screaming, and The Ocean Doesn't Want Me are so greatly done, The Ocean Doesn't Want Me in particular, is _________ creepy. ICP sounds juvenile compared to this song. You know what? Forget trying to explain this. If you can appreciate music that's well written, Tom Waits is your man. All the words in the world can't do him justice. Some albums just may need a review. He does not.

9.0/10 January 4, 2008

Excellence in Weirdness

Swinging from soul, to purely exciting garage noise, Tom Waits has gone from a singer in the back room of a bar, after hours only, singing quiet, heartfelt songs to big, noisy, deep voiced crooner of ballads that involve killers, thieves, heartbreak, crooked old men and other nasty fellows. I absolutely love Tom Waits, his music defines a very specific mood and hits the nail on the head when it comes to making the definitive "man music, music for men." November 13, 2007

Bone Machine

If you are a Tom Waits fan, this is his best as far as I am concerned. I actually love EVERYTHING he does but you will not be dissapointed if you purchase Bone Machine. This is the true Tom Waits at his best. September 29, 2007

Such a Scream

Despite his huge cult following, Tom Waits remains one of the most underrated writers and performers in all of rock. His evolution as an artist is unparalelled with the exception of an elite few (Dylan and Bowie come to mind), and he continues to be innovative while staying true to his more conventional roots in blues, folk, and jazz.

On Bone Machine, Waits takes the experimentation he began with 1983's Swordfishtrombones a step further, by applying some of the same production techniques and mash-ups of song styles to more thoroughly composed tunes. "Dirt in the Ground" is one of the most bluntly depressing ballads ever recorded, while in "Murder in the Red Barn," one of Waits best lyrical efforts ever, we're treated to such postmodern, pastoral lines as "Roadkill has its seasons, just like anything. It's possums in the autumn and it's farm cats in the spring." All the while, those sparse, gritty arrangements compliment Waits's madman-whose-seen-it-all attitude perfectly. Although Waits's use of primitive, clanking percussion (often seemingly on household objects), is common ground for many avant-garde classical composers like Cage or Varese, it is otherwise unheard-of in pop or rock. Just listen to the interplay of the screeching, panning guitars and machine gun percussion on "Such a Scream," while Waits growls suggestively surreal lines like "A cheetah coat fills up with steam - she's such a scream," and pray you maintain your sanity throughout the next thirteen songs.

You probably won't, though, since Waits starts to consider suicide in a spooky, drunken drawl on the spoken-word "The Ocean doesn't Want Me," then does his best "ironically devout Christian sings the blues with a lisp" on "Jesus Gonna be Here." By the time he sounds like a blood-lusting, politically-charged ringleader ("In the Colosseum") then transforms into a pathetic middle-aged road hog ("Goin' Out West,") you'll realize that despite his utter dismissal of nearly all conventions about what constitutes "good singing," Tom Waits is perhaps the greatest singer in all of rock. His ability to represent different characters (obviously informed by his acting experience) and then inject into each one some outrageous, unique facet of his own eccentric personality, is unprecedented. There are 15 songs with vocals on this album, and there may as well be 15 different singers, because Waits delivers a completely new performance with each song.

My only complaint about Bone Machine is that it trails off a bit at the end. "I Don't Wanna Grow Up," is a good tune about a noble subject, but doesn't match the depth of performance, or the lyrical maturity of any of the previous songs. Also, while "That Feel," is an emotionally effective song and a decent album-closer, the lyrics are incomparably vague for Waits, and one gets the impression that the presence of Keith Richards is causing Waits to level off the intensity of his own performance a bit.

Of course, these are minor quibbles. As many other reviewers have already pointed out, this is Waits at his most sublime. Bone Machine doesn't break new ground the way Swordfishtrombones or Rain Dogs did in their day, and it isn't as expansive or illuminating as his recent release, Orphans - it is simply the most mature, engaging Tom Waits album to date, and the pinnacle of a fascinating career. September 9, 2007

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