Day 0723 - Bone Machine

Tom Waits "Bone Machine" (1992)

This was Waits' first album in 5 years - though the gap had been filled by a live album and a Jim Jarmusch soundtrack.

Waits had been moving away from his jazzy lounge piano tunes and drunken balladeer persona and into more avant territory.  Here he takes that evolution one step further, with a sound that I would class as "demented T-Bone Burnett". 

Waits recorded the album in space in the basement of the recording studio with concrete floors and a hot water heater.  He liked the echo of the room, and used this to best suit the songs.  They were essentially stripped down blues tracks, but with the vibe created by the room the sound feels much denser than it actually is.

The album is light on piano, with Waits' sound moving more towards the guitar and interesting percussion tracks.

Probably not my favourite Waits album, but you can hear him starting to get his 90s-Waits sound going and getting comfortable in that skin.

Day 0559 - Rain Dogs

Tom Waits "Rain Dogs" (1985)

If "Swordfishtrombones" was a drunken left-turn down a dark alley, populated by an assortment of weird and unusual characters; "Rain Dogs" is Waits deciding that he likes the alley-way and setting himself up in his spot around the trash-can fire.

The beat poetry and drunken piano ballads are largely gone in favour of stories about the aforementioned odd characters, backed by honking horns (that occasionally drift into New Orleans jazz territory) and interesting melodic percussion.   Regular John Zorn collaborator Marc Ribot provides guitar for the album with playing that ranges from jazzy surf and twangy lead, to abrasive avant sounds, and everything between.  The music includes remnants of his bar-room piano balladry, and even some country and western, but mostly it's a whole new world.

Waits' voice ranges from his newly adopted barking shout, to a gravelly croon, occasionally even dabbling in a sort of affected nasally cabaret vocal.