Tom Waits - Mule Variations
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Artist: Tom WaitsEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-04-27
Music Label: Anti
Soundtracks:
- Big in Japan
- Lowside of the Road
- Hold On
- Get Behind the Mule
- House Where Nobody Lives
- Cold Water
- Pony
- What's He Building in There
- Black Market Baby
- Eyeball Kid
- Picture in a Frame
- Chocolate Jesus
- Georgia Lee
- Filipino Box Spring Hog
- Take It with Me
- Come on Up to the House
Free Music Notes for Mule Variations
Free Music Review: Not a Throwback, Just the Best Folk n'Blues for your Dollar
Hit: 5 Stars
I find it too easy to label this album as a throwback to the "Rain Dogs"-era Waits. Surely "Big In Japan" is somewhat reminiscent of "Hang On St. Christopher" from 87's "Frank's Wild Years", likewise "What's He Building" to "Dogs"' "9th & Hennepin", etcetera. "Mule" is less noisy than Waits last two albums, 1992's death-obsessed "Bone Machine" (which featured some of his finest work), as well as the torture-theater of 1993's vicious "Black Rider". But it's no throwback. In fact, if anyone has been lucky enough to witness/hear his live performances post-Black Rider, in which he was playing "Good Night Irene", and the blues-flavored version of "Filipino Box Spring Hog", as well as his various folk and blues appearances on such projects as "Dead Man Walking", "The End of Violence" soundtracks, the Chuck E. Weiss blues album "Extremely Cool", "Louise" and Old Time Feelin'" from the Ramblin' Jack Elliot "Friends Of Mine" album, or his contribution to the Kinky Friedman (re:folk) tribute "Pearls In the Snow", "Mule" seems a highly appropriate chapter in the artistic growth of Waits. Granted, he has spared us of much of the less accessible (and some of the braver) elements of his last few studio projects, as far back as "Frank's Wild Years", but this is no reason to see this album as a regression. If anything, Waits has progressed, both musically and lyrically. Look at "Hold On" compared to 85's "Downtown Train" or 80's "Jersey Girl". The fact that Waits is album to say "I miss your broken china voice" in a top-40 (if there were any justice) song says much about his innate poetic sensibilities, as well as the level by which Waits maintains his singular artistic gift. The guy's a total pro. Beyond comparison, the album seems like innovative blues, well beyond "Gun Street Girl" off the seminal "Rain Dogs". Consider "Get Behind the Mule" or "Chocolate Jesus", or the tender "Pony" with John Hammond on mouthharp. "Cold Water", "Filipino Box Spring Hog" and "Big In Japan" are fine blues stomps, the former a campfire sing-along gone bad. Waits is still able to further the bone and gristle (to some extent) poetics of "Bone Machine" in "House Where Nobody Lives", "Pony" and the seminal "Picture In a Frame", the Leadbelly/Blind Willie Johnson-influenced "Georgia Lee" or the impressively personal "Take It With Me". That Waits is able to combine extraordinarily perceptive and personal lyrics with some of the most innovative and original music in recent decades is a tribute to his amazing talent and professional credibility. I'd go so far as to name him the premier songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century. He deepens things. When the rubble clears . . . If you purchase the LP version of this (and I suggest you do, for reasons of sound quality), the 4th side (that's right - - - it's a double LP) is essential: "Georgia Lee", "Filipino Box Spring Hog" "Take It With Me" and the gospel perfection of "Come On Up To The House" drive it home and fix it a drink.
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