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What Happened?

The Lone Sharks

Nine Lives

Steve Winwood

Moneyland

Various Artists

I'm Not There (Original Soundtrack)

Various Artists

Home Before Dark

Neil Diamond

Toby Keith's 35 BIGGEST Hits

Toby Keith

It's A Shame About Ray (Collector's Edition)

The Lemonheads

About a Son

Otis Blue (Collector's Edition)

Otis Redding

Wood Brothers

Blood Money

Tom Waits

I feel sorry for the people who can’t listen to Tom Waits because they find his voice too gruff, or his music too roughshod, because they are missing out on one of this age’s most unique talents. Blood Money is typically brilliant Waits, combining extremely literate and playfully nasty lyrics with some of the most imaginative musical accompaniment this side of Malaysia. If it’s even possible, Waits’ voice sound as though it is growing even more gravelly with age, making him sound like some half dead, back alley seer who could read your palm, if the price was right.

Waits, who writes everything these days with his wife Kathleen Brennan (who certainly deserves more recognition that is usually given), loves to sing about existentialism and the state of mankind, but he always does it with a twist. Despite lyrics like "I’d sell your heart to the junkman, baby, for a buck, for a buck," he and Brennan are ultimately romantic through and through. In essence, they often take the viewpoint of a bemused misanthrope who never sees the good side of mankind, but nevertheless finds himself touched by certain events. For the best combination of romance and misanthropy, check out "Lullaby" (" Nothing’s ever yours to keep. Close your eyes, go to sleep. If I die before you wake, don’t you cry, don’t you weep.") or "Woe" ("The ribbon ‘round your neck against your skin that’s pale as bone, it is my favorite thing you’ve worn"). Toss into the mix a few hysterical upbeat songs that sound like polkas from Hades -- "Starving in the Belly of a Whale" and "Misery Is the River of the World" – {notice the not so subtle titles here?} -- and you have a fully realized vision that might not make you want to hug a tree, but it will certainly make you reflect. It might even make you smile.
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