Album Review: Bad as Me - Tom Waits
When a new Tom Waits album comes around it rarely fails to disappoint. For nearly 25 years now these releases tend to fall into two categories the stand alone and the sound track. The ‘stand alones’ tend to be the real gems and just as the case with 2004’s Real Gone, 1999’s Mule Varaitions and 1994’s Bone Machine, Bad As Me is no exception.
Bad as Me croons, it terrifies at points, its reserved at moments, it’s a full bag of tricks. The knack with Waits is he manages to sound completely unique to anyone else on the planet, the only comparison is with himself which is forever changing anyway.
‘Hell Broke Luce’ is a terrifying cross between a limerick and a rap. For the closer ‘New Years Eve’ we get another interpretation of Auld Lang Syne in ballad mode. You get a take on the Rolling Stones (including name checks for Jagger and Richards) in the bluesy ‘Satisfied’.
The originality in every thing Waits does is unique to him, nobody else sounds like this, nobody else writes songs like this. The physical release comes in a book format, even the quirky album launch video is a classic.
Ok I admit I’m a massive Waits fans, but there was nae chance of this album being anything other than epic.
