Rain Dogs (studio album) by Tom Waits

From JoaoMoreira 01/01/2023 21:57

I’ve heard many Tom Waits’ records and this is basically one more. A nice one.
No surprise but that doesn’t make it a bad record.

This album is sooo good, he took everything that was great on Swordfishtrombones and improved it. It sill has a vibe of sitting in a bar, drunk, late at night and listening to stories from eccentric man, but the atmosphere created with instrumentals are even darker and more twisted. His vocals are wild as ever and I absolutely love it. Highlights: Singapore, Jockey Full Of Bourbon (my favorite), Hang Down Your Head, Rain Doogs, Gun Street GIrl, Downtown Train.

Grew on me

Odd and eerie. This album contains sounds you'll have never heard. But deep down can find some wonderful melodies.

A tough listen but I don't think I have ever found an album as rewarding as this one when you give yourself time to be able to adapt to Waits harsh musical landscape. He really does create a whole world in just 53 minutes and if you will allow him to he will drag you down to the dark alleys of a street and experience things you never have with music ever before. The imagery he can conjure up with his words are nothing short of phenomenal, making this one of the best lyrical albums I have ever heard. The environment and atmosphere that he engulfs you in is brilliant as well as you feel trapped in darkness and feel like there is no escape. He creates tension beautifully and has me on the edge of my seat every time I hear this record. Then there is the vocal, which seems like one of the most divisive things about this record and I can't lie when I first heard it many years ago I absolutely hated it. That rough, raw and gravelly sound was just too much for my young unexperienced ears but now many years down the line after several listens I am in love with it. It fits the style of music perfectly and there is no better tone to discuss the points he is talking about than the one he is using. That is because he sounds experienced and like he has done all the things or seen all the things he speaks about so we can buy into him more and he becomes more trustworthy. The vocal is just brilliant in my opinion and he makes me believe every word he says. Finally, there is the music itself which is a concoction of such a diverse array of instrumentation that you need countless listens to find them all. All of them are played phenomenally and they are used extremely effectively. None of them overpower each other and every instrument has its time to shine. Some of the instrumental highlights for me are saxophone, piano, organ, trombone, bass and double bass and all of the percussion. They all build up to create this fantastic soundscape which is so rich and full of content that you could explore it for days. The musical layering we get is just genius as well and keeps the music fresh for even experienced listeners. Overall, this is a musical masterpiece that I marvel at every time I listen to it and I am so glad I gave it my time and patience because it really deserves every single bit of praise that it receives.

Let me make this perfectly clear: I don't like Tom Waits. I don't like his voice, I don't like his arrangements, I don't like what Mark Ribot wants his guitar to sound like, I'm less impressed with his poesy than most... You're almost as likely to catch me listening to Starland Vocal Band as Waits.

Except for this.

This is one of the 200 greatest albums, threatening to break into the top 100. Can't really explain it and won't try. I'll just blame Keith Richards and move on.

But "9th and Hennepin" has one of my favorite images ever, the woman with "that razor sadness that just gets worse."

From Jboy56 02/05/2022 16:31

The road where Waits went with this album is not what I want to go. A way too alienating music for my uneasy palate. Not bad but a revisit is not certain

Rock music, in all its forms, is as much about feeling as it is about talent. Maybe more so. Is Tom Waits a great singer? Not even close.

But can he put you directly in a time and place that you didn’t even know you wanted to visit? You’d better believe it, Bubba.

I’d usually complain about a 19 song record, but this trip to a seedy underbelly of the city is just long enough.

This just hit me…remember the character Ooga Booga from The Nightmare Before Christmas? This record is like that character come to life. Fantastic.

I'm going to live on this hill alone, I think, but this is a top 10 all time album for me. There are no misses. Musically, it's weird but it's Waits at his best.

Wonderfully weird. Also, I was surprised to realize that much of this album takes place in the Midwest.