Reviews
 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
Loaded
Wood Brothers
|
Tom Waits
Alice consists entirely of material that Tom Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan had written a decade ago, for a European stage show of the same name. For whatever reason, this collection was released at the same time as Blood Money, which I fear might have had a negative impact on sales figures. That is a terrible shame, because this is a truly great album. Whether singing about love, or loss (or usually, both), Waits and Brennan have composed one of the most romantic albums of the past ten years.
The album is full of typical imagery involving trains, freak shows, prostitutes and broken hearts, but there’s a tremendous sensitivity here that betrays any type of dismissive judgment. Never has Waits sounded more attuned to his characters, with a sympathy that makes each song a three-dimensional portrait. Despite his un-copyable voice, many of these songs could be interpreted by virtually any competent singer and sound good, conventionally arranged or otherwise. Waits sticks close to his junkyard retinue of players, but adds a strong pinch of jazz sensibility to the proceedings, which only serves to make the album that much more authentic and believable.
For someone whose voice can sound so ravaged, Waits sure has a powerful set of lungs. Listen to his theatrically hoarse guffaw on "Kommienezuspadt" (whew, that’s a mouthful) and see if it doesn’t scare you out of your seat. The above freak-out aside, Alice consists mostly of gently romantic notions; "Noone puts flowers on a flower’s grave" is but one obvious example of this. "Noone Knows I’m Gone" and "I’m Still Here" are two different sides of the same lonely coin, and Waits sings them as if he recognizes that his own days are numbered. "Fish and Bird" and "Barcarolle" end the album with a mood of heartbreaking beauty, astounding in the depth of emotion they convey.
Lately, too many people have classified Tom Waits as a carnival barker with cartoonish characteristics. That may be true some of the time, but if you poke underneath the gruff exterior, there is an expressive heart that is capable of conveying the entire saga that takes place inside the human heart.
Grade: 
 
|
More Music Reviews
More Movie Reviews
More Book Reviews
More Concert Reviews
Powered by Millennium Communications Inc.