Double Take was made to be a Bond movie theme, and Boom Boom in the Zoom Zoom Room even takes a stab at smoky jazz. The result is the best dance album of the year not created in a DJ's laboratory. Turn on the song Canned Heat. If the lips don't move and the hips don't bop around the house to Jay Kay's Stevie Wonder-esque vocals, something's wrong. The one that sounds like a Budweiser frog.
Most humans only rasp like that when they have the flu.
Waits has been doing it for 25 years, and it has made him a storytelling minstrel worthy of attention. Mule Variations was five years in the making, and the time to brood gave Waits excellent fodder for his tales. Mule Variations is like a cherished collection of short stories. His contributions on this solo disc aren't that much of a departure from the ensemble's celebrated album. Filled with stories of a romance and struggle in a pre-Castro Cuba, Ferrer is an island historian rich on detail.