Mule Variations

I've been listening to Tom Waits's Mule Variations quite a bit over the last few days, and it is quite excellent. What's really nice about it is that it has quite a bit of variety. Tom started out his career basically as a lounge singer, trying to capture the essence of Saturday night, with somewhat limited success. The early albums are rather hit and miss, with an occasional great ballad or amusing bit like The Piano Has Been Drinking, but with a lot of filler tracks. I think he either got bored with doing that or he just realized that since his voice is pretty much terrible, he couldn't really make it as a crooner. He started doing more and more crazy stuff, and eventually came out with Mule Variations. I should also mention that Bone Machine is pretty out there, too, but I think it's kind of overrated and MV is much better.

Some tracks of special interest:

Big in Japan - features Primus and Tom doing some kind of weird beatboxing or something. It's also a lot of him basically yelling out somewhat ridiculous lines. His evil gruff voice really works for this one.

Hold On - Very poppy by Tom Waits standards, but very good. The first lines are the best; "They put a sign up in our town/If you live it up, you won't live it down."

Get Behind the Mule - Tom does blues right.

Cold Water - Tom sounds right as a hobo, sleeping with the snakes and the bugs, happy to find an old dog.

What's He Building? - I don't usually like spoken word stuff, but this one's rather amusing and has a lot of bizarre sounds. However, like most spoken word stuff, it gets boring after a listen or two, so I end up skipping it all the time.

Picture in a Frame - Sometimes he really hits the mark with a ballad, and this is one of those times.

Filipino Box Spring Hog - Bizarre and wonderful in a way that only he can do.

Take It with Me - Another nice love song from Tom.

Come On Up to the House - A scenic march through Tom's old world, cracked and broken vagrant spirituality that ends the album on a perfect up and down note.