An old shoe, a battered suitcase, a run-down diner, a wrecked Cadillac in a small-town junkyard, these are the sort of inspirations normally associated with Tom Waits’ music. From finger-clicking jazz to industrial metal, the influence of rusty, dusty, grimy Americana permeates every one of Waits’ twenty studio albums, from Closing Time in 1973 to his latest masterpiece, Bad as Me.
It has been almost seven years since Waits’ last studio album, Real Gone, since then he has released only one other album, a compilation of quirky oddities called Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards. Bad as Me is a refreshing return to the more diversely genre-strewn albums of Wait’s back catalogue. Incorporating elements of R &B, jazz, blues, rock – even Irish folk, and a wide range of vocal styles including an enchanting, clear falsetto on the track ‘Talking at the Same Time’. If you have ever seen him in a film – The Book of Eli and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus among many others -you will know that Tom Waits is a brilliant actor, and his music has always reflected his penchant for taking on a persona. For many years it was the drunken, boho, beat -poet, but at some point in the late 70’s, Tom decided he was tired of this shtick, and began experimenting with a strange brew of vocal characters – “a button from a yellow jacket, feather from a buzzard, blood from a bounty hunter’s coal black eye,” a bubbling cauldron of fire and brimstone, thunder and frost, glitter and gravel.
As always, the songs on Bad as Me conjure powerful imagery, but unlike most of Waits’ albums, Bad as Me openly calls upon the spirits of some of Tom’s strongest musical influences. It’s almost as if the album was written in homage to those who have inspired him throughout his extensive career. The vocals in track four “Get Lost” are unmistakably Elvis inspired, and while there have always been hints of Howlin’ Wolf and Captain Beefheart in Waits’ singing, the new tracks “Chicago,” “Raised Right Men” and “Satisfied” are by far the strongest references to date. As with previous Tom Waits albums, Keef makes a few appearances in his latest work. Most ironically the trademark, tastefully off-beat Richards licks appear in “Satisfied,” a witty retort to the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction” – “Now Mr Jagger, now Mr Richards, I will scratch where I’ve been itching.” Track twelve “Hell Broke Luce” is a clear indictment of the Western warmongering of recent years. With a driving military cadence and brutal vocal delivery, in the simplest words and most sparse of stanzas it tells of the pointless hardship and destruction of war with a pictorial clarity only a master storyteller like Waits could achieve.
As a whole, Bad as Me is the strongest and most complex Tom Waits album we’ve seen in some time. Each song is placed so as to contrast with its neighbours, so that to listen to the album from beginning to end is akin to journeying through a rolling landscape of cultures, religions, styles and tastes – like Kerouac’s On the Road in musical form. The beauty of listening to a Tom Waits record for the first time is that you never know what to expect, but will always find something to touch your soul, or test your wit. What was most unexpected this time was that the 61 year old Waits would deliver such a broad and cohesive album, so relevant to past, present and future. Bad as Me is a masterpiece of love, hate, reflection and revelation. All that’s left to do now is to listen again, and again, and again.
– Jake Vitasovich
