Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
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Free Music Notes for Rain Dogs
Free Music Review: Best of the best
Hit: 5 Stars
Rolling Stones selected this album as the 393rd best album ever made, and I looked over the first 392 that came before it and had trouble understanding how those could be better.
Having been introduced to his music at a time when his music was able to drill right through, I can say that he should almost be outlawed, he's so good.
I think the hightlight of the album is "Diamonds & Gold" which I really couldn't place in the same category as any song before it by anybody. It is certainly not a ballad, nor is it a social rant (maybe it is). The melody is a piercing melody while the lyrics such as "catch me a rainbow, steal me a dream" makes you wonder how Tom can aim straight at your mental health and hit the bull's eye.
"Time", as other reviewevers put it, may be his best ballad, though I would put "Alice" before it. "Hang down your dead", while talking about a sad love situation, is a less bleak ballad than Time.
Then there's "Downtown Train". First time I heard it from him (it's his song by the way), I wanted to cry over what Rod Stewart did to it. Then I wanted to cry about other things, but really, it's another superb ballad.
The first 4 songs of the album echo the same genre and are almost sung by the same persona, which is rare on a Waits album. He usually is acting when he's singing.
Anyway, if you don't already own this album, there really is no excuse for it. It is very accessible and easy to love.
Free Music Review: One of his best
Hit: 5 Stars
Though not quite as brilliant as Bone Machine (but then, what is?), Rain Dogs is yet another fantastic album from the one and only Tom Waits. Its one of his 80s albums, meaning that experimental/avant-garde is added to the already eclectic mix that made up his 70s pre-Swordfishtrombones albums.
Uncompromising in its sparse, experimental instrumentation, Rain Dogs is nonetheless very listenable for those who know what to expect. That's the beauty of Waits - unlike a lot of experimental artists (who still make great music, mind) he doesn't exchange listenability for experimentation.
The music itself is full of variety. Dark, eerie and sparse to loud, bluesy rock, every one of these 19 songs has its own character. Wait's vocals are equally diverse, be it his calm cool bluesy voices, his aggressive growl or his delicate, drunken crooning. As always, the lyrics he's singing are always poetic and full of character which only add to the atmosphere of the song (bearing in kind that the atmosphere changes from song to song).
Ah, sod it. There's already 100 other reviews for this album that praise it and describe it (many of which have done better jobs than me), so I'll just end with this: Tom Waits is one of the finest singers, lyricists and songwriters of the twntieth century and Rain Dogs is one of the strongest albums that proves it. If you like anything about Waits, you'll at least appreciate Rain Dogs. Personally, I love it.
Free Music Review: A masterpiece.
Hit: 5 Stars
Tom Waits is a musical genius--you only have to listen to RAIN DOGS to figure that one out. In this world of synthisized music, where the lyrics are all trite and the instrumentation predictable and dull, RAIN DOGS cut to the very core of the music fan in all of us. It is a raw, scorching album made by a man who has something to say--even if he's not entirely sure what that is.
RAIN DOGS is a masterpiece not just in lyric and melody, but also diversity. There are tender ballads ("Time," if you really want to use the word "tender" to describe it) alongside raucous stompers ("Cemetery Polka"). "Hang Down Your Head" and "Downtown Train" are both genuine rock tunes (the former is one of my favorite Waits tunes of all time; the latter is one of his most popular, thanks to Rod Stewart). And it's a wonder "Blind Love" hasn't been re-made into a country hit.
RAIN DOGS is an album where a dark, haunting atmosphere ("Sane, sane, they're all insane/The fireman's blind, the conductor's lame") lingers next to a sense of lazy hopelessness ("16 men on a dead man's chest/And I've been drinking from a broken cup/2 pairs of pants and a mohair vest/I'm full of bourbon I can't get up"), which in turn stands beside a sense of heartbroken hope ("Hang down your head for sorrow/Hang down your head for me/Hang down your head tomorrow/Hang down your head Marie"). This is a true, genuine classic--just one of many by Tom Waits.
Free Music Review: A Criminally Under-Rated Artist
Hit: 5 Stars
Rain Dogs is one of the greatest albums that no one else on my college campus has heard of. Waits is an incredible songwriter, in the top class with only a handful of others. This is an interesting album in that it may be called a Waits sampler album. He has the rough jazz/blues with the growling lyrics that some of his albums are known for and the ballads that others are known for. His experimental blues tracks are incredible, Singapore, Clap Hands, Jockey Full of Bourbon are all great songs. His voice adds to the texture and realism of the characters. The true highlights of the album, to me, are the slower songs, Time, Downtown Train, and Anywhere I Lay my Head, which rips my soul out every time. The placement of the instrumental tracks is interesting in its obvious strategy. One is after the title track because after that song, the sheer power of it, the listener needs some time to cool down; then between Downtown Train and Anywhere I Lay my Head, because the songs would be too much back to back. Waits voice is an interesting instrument. Tori Amos was on Letterman last night and performed Time. She did a very good job, putting all of herself in the song and the audience loved it. However Waits is in that regard is like Dylan. You can cover the songs, but no one can sing Dylan like Dylan, and no one can sing Tom Waits like the man himself. That voice is incredible.Free Music Review: C'MON BABY! ...PULL UP YOUR SOCKS!!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
This album pretty much set the bar in 1985 for the future of what kind of music Tom Waits would be recording. Absolutely strange, almost nightmarish type of stuff, that occasionally turns back into the jazzy soft, heart-of-a-hooker type stuff he did in the seventies. People who first heard this album back in the day must have thought Tom Waits had completely lost his mind. Turns out, he really just found it.
Suddenly the tender old themes of the blood red moon, and sullen love songs via Blue Valentines, were transformed into beat heavy,psychotic, scenes from a Halloween cartoon.
I of course, can't get enough.
I got into Waits via Mule Variations, when it was released in '99. Which I thought was wonderful in its insanity. Theres lots of great stuff that he's done in that vein, but RAIN DOGS is the best example. There is definately some stuff on this record that you will never hear anything else come close to. It's warped, its psychedelic, it's freaky, it's sad, and yet is always pleasing to the ears... (some of his later stuff can be hard to listen to at first sometimes, you just fall into this one).
I was blown away by how good this album was when I first heard it. If you are unfamiliar with Tom Waits' music, this would be an excellent place to start. With or without acid.