There's no way a bunch of Emerson and Berklee preppy punks who got started the year after I left Boston are gonna beat out the dark rider, the nighthawk at the diner, Doc Heller, the pot banger, the potion barker.
I put up Rain Dogs on my list, but I had considered Bone Machine, Mule Variations, Frank's Wild Years, and Swordfishtrombones. Any Tom Waits album is good as longs as it's got one good grand weeper and one good grim reaper -- and perhaps I'd add, one good pot banger.
Mule Variations is strong on the weepers and bangers. When I start listing favorites I have a hard time stopping. Mule variations might be a little weak on reapers, depending on how you define them; songs like Black Market Baby and Eyeball Kid and Low Side of the Road don't really do much for me. (Contrast to Bone Machine and Rain Dogs, which are full of good reapers.)
Overall I think Mule Variations feels a little more well-rounded and accessible than other Tom Waits, which is a good thing.
So yeah, the Tom Waits is going to win. Still, there's a reason three of you nominated a few Bosto punks to be (forever, indelibly) memorialized in the great Music Death Match of 2010. I listened for about thirty seconds to Chunk of Change and I added it to my shopping cart. Some really nice electronics. Scratches the Postal Service itch and yet it feels (granted, from a first listen) like it might have more staying power.
Nice call that Passion Pit "Scratches the Postal Service itch and yet it feels (granted, from a first listen) like it might have more staying power." After dozens to fifty listens, I think you'll still find that true.
ReplyDeleteAnd still, it had to be Waits. I heart your categories for Waits songs: weepers, reapers, bangers.
Karl, did you find that when you were trying to put these two album titles together to come up with a title for this entry that your mind went to some pretty dark places?
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