Hammond and Waits sound as if they are having the time of their lives. Luckily, that sense of edgy fun is intensely infectious. Though credited as a Hammond album, Wicked Grin is very much a collaboration. All but one of its 13 tunes are Waits originals. I've Been Changed .
Waits also serves as rhythm guitarist and producer for the recording.
Seldom has Waits found a more sympathetic interpreter for his delightfully lowlife sagas. Shore Leave , for example, is transformed into a twilight tale of foreign misadventure through Hammond's husky, hushed narration, while Big Black Mariah comes barreling down the pike with a raw and playfully reckless groove. While Hammond's singing is more effervescent than it's been in years thanks to these after-hours tales, the songs are afforded a clarity Waits' originals as daring and bizarre as they were didn't always possess. So with the weather warming up, set aside an evening, roll down the windows and let Wicked Grin make your world merrily go boom. Walter Tunis, contributing music critic Wicked Grin E-mail this story to a friend.