Tom Waits - Foreign Affairs
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.34 You Save: $6.64 (55%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.50 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Foreign Affairs
Free Music Review: Classic pre-"Swordfishtrombones" Waits
Hit: 5 Stars
FOREIGN AFFAIRS is one of Waits's most engaging jazzy albums...its lyrics are so dark and poetic, you'll be drawn in instantly, recognizing immediately within yourself the heartache these characters are going through. If nothing else, you can fall back on the hometown hopelessness of "A Sight For Sore Eyes" (which opens with "Auld Lang Syne"), or the gin-soaked romantic banter between Waits and Bette Midler on "I Never Talk to Strangers" (a tune which would inspire the future Tom Waits-Chrystal Gayle masterpiece ONE FROM THE HEART album). There's the cool "Burma Shave" and the catchy "Jack & Neal" (that sax intro will grab you by the ears and haul your butt in). FOREIGN AFFAIRS is one of the best "early" Waits albums, and showcases why this masterful singer/songwriter deserves a pedestal in the Musicians Hall of Fame. We'd better put him in a far, back corner, though...he might scare off the uninitiated.Free Music Review: Waits goes into a traditional jazz direction on his 5th album
Hit: 5 Stars
Following the experimental jazz elements that he explored on 1976's "Small Change", Tom Waits decided to go into a more traditional jazz direction. You can find all the familiar elements of jazz on this release such as piano ("Burma-Shave"), sax ("Medley"), and stand-up bass ("Barber Shop"). He went into a good direction on this release but he took it to a whole new level lyrically and musically on the follow up "Blue Valentine". I do consider this one of his most under-rated albums and I do recommended it for everyone's Tom Waits collection.Free Music Review: A seemingly forgotten masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
I like 'Foreign Affairs' more every time I listen to it, and I get cravings for it when I haven't heard it for a while. Tom is at the pinnacle of his beat period, and his song-writing has matured very well. It is a truly a beautiful album.Free Music Review: Tom Waits and Bette Midler
Hit: 5 Stars
This CD is beautiful. And it features Tom Waits with Bette Midler in track 3.Free Music Review: A slight hint of change
Hit: 4 Stars
Foreign Affairs seems to be a very fitting title for Waits' 4th studio album. As I noted earlier, Tom Waits perfected his shtick on Small Change. Foreign affairs is actually the start of the metamorphosis that would continue on his next two albums until a full fledged transformation with Swordfishtrombones(1983).The first part(side 1 on the old vinyl record) finds Waits sticking to his guns. Cinny's Waltz is an is an instrumental, but this time we also see the addition of violins.
Muriel is another Waits song about a lost love. Although nothing is wrong with the song per- se it doesn't match Waits' earlier songs touching this subject.
I Never Talk To Strangers is a singles bar duet with Bette Midler and has a clever and funny text. Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy is remembered on the track Jack & Neal. One of the albums highlights comes next. A Sight for Sore Eyes starts with an intro that uses the notes from Auld Lang Syne and then catches on as one of Waits' most memorable bar stool ramblings of his career.
Then there is a change in direction. The almost 9 minute long Potter's Field is a quite different song a kind of jazz noir. On Burma Shave we find a traditional scenario: girl meets mysterious stranger and takes off with him in his Ford Mustang. But the roles are blurred. You're not really sure about who is leading and who is following. A great song with a tragic end. Barber Shop is a jazz beat song. Foreign Affair is a song that sounds like Bad Liver and a Broken Heart.
A lot of critics accused Waits of repeating himself on Foreign Affairs. I think they overlooked a new approach by Waits. This is especially apparent from Potter's Field and on. Waits seems to pick up on this new approach as it is followed up on his next album Blue Valentines.
Foreign Affairs isn't as strong as his previous albums. It might be that Waits, too, was a little tired of sticking to his old act. That is why the album seems a little confused. Any transitionally period is hard and despite the flaws Foreign Affairs is still a great album