From: mchenry@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote
Subject: Re: Tom Waits' new album
Date: 27 Sep 92 20:43:03 -0400
Distribution: world
Organization: Georgetown University

In article <HELLERS.92Sep25150159@cleo.cs.wisc.edu>, hellers@cs.wisc.edu (Joe Hellerstein) writes:
> In article <1992Sep22.174343.1367@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu> mchenry@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:
> 
>>  Is anyone out there a fan of Tom Waits? I have been listening to his new 
>>  BONE MACHINE album. His lyrics are less obscure and his delivery of them 
...
> 
> I attempted posting a review of BONE MACHINE, but got frustrated and
> quit.  It's hard to write about.  My feeling is that the album is not
> as good as his previous few, although it's still excellent.  He had
> been in a clear progression of complexity in his last few albums; with
> each album he seemed to go a little deeper into his own personal
> concept, and further from his lounge-parody thing from early on, which
> gets tired pretty fast.  This album pushes further texturally than
> FRANK'S WILD YEARS, but the ideas and obsessions seem to be rehashed
> -- "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Today" is too much like "9th and
> Hennepin", his judgement-day obsession is getting a little tired, and
> did anybody else notice that he uses the line "Heaven is full" in
> back-to-back songs?  It's a fun line, but like a lot of his little
> ideas it only works once.
> 

I agree that this album does not go one step beyond Frank's Wild Years, the 
way that the previous three albums seemed to outdo each other. It seems to 
me, though, that his art song approach in Frank's had reached something of 
a dead end. It was hard to imagine where he could go from there. In Bone 
Machine, he has returned to more of a rock/blues underpinning (rather than 
what I may ignorantly call Kurt Weill-ish songs), but with a lot of the 
textures he developed in the last three albums. Bone Machine returns to 
talking about a variety of characters, rather than about one (Frank), which 
is welcome diversity. As far as his re-use of the line "Heaven is full," I'd 
say that this has to be deliberate, and what it does is string the songs 
together into a greater whole. For me the weakest song is the very last 
song, That Feel. 



> What I do like about this album is that he's pushed his voice and his
> textural concept even further -- the background is minimal, and the
> sound of the album is basically defined by his increasingly incredible
> moaning.  The local comedy newspaper here ("The Onion") reviewed the
> album, and were right on when they called him "bugfuck crazy", and
> said something like "it's clear that Tom Waits is still drinking his
> own urine, because his voice is stranger than ever."  (Or something
> like that, I forgot to save a copy.)
> 
> Anyway, BONE MACHINE is worth picking up.  But if you haven't gotten
> FRANK'S WILD YEARS or RAIN DOGS, I'd get one of those instead.
> 
> Joe Hellerstein
> 

Waits is certainly an acquired taste. Just the sound of his voice puts off 
most people. But I would say that, for those who do not know his last few 
albums, Bone Machine is not a bad place to start because most of the lyrics 
are less obscure. I also like the tension of differing religious views on 
this album. On the one hand he says we are all dust in the ground, then he 
says we'll be naked when we reach Heaven (all stripped down), then that 
Jesus is going to return - now how do you find a consistent view in all of 
that? These songs have to be approached through his layers of irony. His 
song Who Are You is a wonderfully mature look at a relationship gone sour. 
Murder in the Red Barn is a nice reference back to his earlier story-song 
work. "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me Today" is a chilling portrayal of someone 
on the verge of suicide - I don't see that strong a similarity with 9th and 
Hennepin.

I do agree with most of what you said.

Bill McHenry                   |Those who do not hear the past works
mchenry@guvax (bitnet)         |are condemned to recompose them....
mchenry@guvax.georgetown.edu   |                 -me

Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote