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sp4cetiger
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- #1
- Posted: 07/01/2014 18:32
- Post subject: User Pick of the Day (#97): Mule Variations [Mercury]
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Mule Variations by Tom Waits
Chart: Top 100 Greatest Music Albums by Mercury
Rank on User's Chart: 4
Year: 1999
Rank on BEA Overall: 674
Average Rating: 79/100
Summary Info: The twelfth studio album by California-based rock musician, Tom Waits. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
| Mercury wrote: | This is a record which is super weird and eerie and creepy at times (What's He Building), and just overwhelmingly pure and emotional at other times (Picture in a Frame) and it really does rock back and forth between those extremes. The beauty of it is as you listen to this album more and more the distinctions become blurred, and you start realizing how cohesive this album is all the way through! Tom Waits doesn't get enough credit for being one of the greatest American musicians of all time. He just could perform anything well, and he could write songs in any kind of way. He also had a really amazing feel for that American vibe in his music. Not in a jingoistic way, no. I mean its like he had his finger on the pulse of American roots and soul and history and All the strange elements of it. The only other musicians I can think of who had that same feel or understanding were/are Dylan, Townes Van Zandt and, to a degree, Springsteen. Anyway, that understanding and virtuosity is on full display here on this 1999 masterpiece.
Best Songs: "Picture In A Frame" and "Come On Up to the House" and "Hold On" |
Details on the implementation and chart selection process of "User Pick of the Day" can be found here and here, respectively. A chart documenting the previous picks can be found here.
Last edited by sp4cetiger on 07/01/2014 18:42; edited 1 time in total
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Antonio-Pedro
Subspace Highway Traveler
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Location: Rain forest Kingdom
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Skinny
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- #3
- Posted: 07/01/2014 18:38
- Post subject:
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Really pretty low down the list in terms of the best Waits records. Still great.
_________________
2021 in full effect. Come drop me some recs. Y'all know what I like.
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Norman Bates
Gender: Male
Age: 51
Location: Paris, France
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- #4
- Posted: 07/01/2014 18:48
- Post subject:
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One of my favourite Waits LPs from his later period.
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sp4cetiger
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- #5
- Posted: 07/01/2014 18:56
- Post subject:
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| Antonio-Pedro wrote: | | Wait.... where are Mercury's notes? They are great for descripting his vision of the album and I like them much..., are you not implementing it more? |
Nope, just forgot. Fixed now.
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Mercury
Turn your back on the pay-you-back last call
Gender: Male
Location: St. Louis
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- #6
- Posted: 07/01/2014 20:25
- Post subject:
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Yeah, I really love this record. From start to finish I find it to be really engaging and interesting and really effective at all the moods and styles it tries to take on. The slow numbers are just really sad and romantic. And the louder and more abrasive numbers are equal parts funny and disturbing. Lyrically he is great here as well. I feel the lyrics on "Take It With Me" are stunning because they really carry the whole song as the musical accompaniment is very minimal, and the mood is very hushed and intimate. To me that song feels like a quiet conversation with Tom or whatever character he is playing, about his life and the love he's had and lost and his philosophy and his adentures. It's breathtaking! The opening lines of "The phone's off the hook. No one knows where we are. It's a long time since I drank champagne. The ocean is blue, as blue as your eyes." Just sets up the whole track beautifully.
And this album has similar tender successes with the simple, blues style lyrics of "Picture In A frame" and the rambling songwriting gem "Hold On".
As for the more wild and raucous side, everything from the opener "Big In Japan", and "Chocolate Jesus", "Eyeball Kid" (HAIL HAIL! THE EYEBALL KID!/... He doesn't have a body! Not even a brow!") and "Filipino Box Spring Hog" all work and are funny and enjoyable.
There's also other aspects to this album. There's a whole folk side to it. But it's not a simple guitar and vocal rendition of folk and roots, it's a down and dirty rendition. Waits really knows how to get to the essence and spirit of old time music - folk, blues, work songs, etc. but he does it with his own stamp or style all over it. Great examples of this on this album are standouts like "Get Behind The mule", "Georgia Lee", "Cold Water" (especially love this song to its core) and the old time preacher gospel of "Come On Up To The house" which also happens to be a PERFECT and super uplifting closer to this master work.
In closing, this thing just features almost everything I love about Mr. Waits. He's such a musical genius and such an important artist in my life. And I feel this is his best album and most well rounded and consistent, bar none. I think it's got a better sound and production than "Rain Dogs" and some of his earlier albums and it balances songs with experiments better here than on some of his other modern (last 30 years) classics. Yeah, this is honestly the best album of his. But there are so few bad ones it's wild.
This album is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! If you love this, also check out "Alice" and "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers an Bastards". He really hasn't released a whole lot of less than great stuff in the last, oh, 40+ years.
_________________
-Ryan
ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!
My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!
Last edited by Mercury on 07/01/2014 21:35; edited 1 time in total
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meccalecca
Voice of Reason
Gender: Male
Location: The Land of Enchantment
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- #7
- Posted: 07/01/2014 20:28
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This was my gateway into Waits, and remains a personal favorite from his discography, not too far below Rain Dogs and Swordfishtrombones.
_________________
http://jonnyleather.com
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junodog4
Future Grumpy Old Man
Gender: Male
Location: Calgary
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- #8
- Posted: 07/02/2014 03:06
- Post subject:
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This is one of my favourites. So varied... So interesting (lack of a better word - it's just a really interesting album).
_________________
Finnegan was super bad-ass.
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Saoirse
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- #9
- Posted: 07/02/2014 11:33
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Fine record, would probably be considered many other band's highlights but on Wait's discography it's just a very good album, but nothing wrong with that. Only few songs really upend what you'd expect on one his albums, but when they do they really hit hard (especially "What's he building in there"); otherwise it's mostly just more blown-up, accessible versions of classic Waits songs, but still well crafted through and through
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Patman360
Serenity Now
Gender: Male
Age: 31
Location: Cork, Ireland
Moderator
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- #10
- Posted: 07/02/2014 11:59
- Post subject:
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| Skinny wrote: | | Really pretty low down the list in terms of the best Waits records. Still great. |
Pretty much this, it's really good but I'd still put 5+ Waits albums above it (That said I don't think I've actually heard every single one so I must look into that...). Really love 'Big In Japan' for some reason though.
_________________
2023
2022
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