At this point with an amazing body of work Tom Waits could release a greatest hits double-cd with 20 or 30 songs drawn from his past and throw in a couple of new songs and it would make lots of people very happy. But that’s not the type of artist that Tom Waits is and instead he has a collection of 56 songs, some old and most new that are all distinctive and beautiful.
Every new Tom Waits recording is the same for me. I listen the first time and not everything seems to click with me, but a few tracks I will instantly fall in love with. The same thing happened this time and then with repeated listening it starts to fit me in the way that a shoe starts to fit you better and better the more you walk in it. So now I’m very comfortable with the wonderful sounds and lyrics that I love listening to.
The songs cover the whole range of Tom Waits and what he’s capable of with a beautiful melancholy feeling that is bittersweet and always welcome.