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Amazon.co.uk Review
Seven years passed between the release of Bone Machine and Mule Variations. During that time Tom Waits eschewed cutting another "conventional" (the term used loosely here) song collection, occupying his time with acting projects, a soundtrack (Night on Earth), a stage project (The Black Rider), and sundry smaller diversions. What's surprising about Mule Variations is how little he's strayed from the old Bone yard through the years. As with his Grammy-winning 1992 outing, Waits intersperses the tough and the tender, mixing exercises in creative noisemaking with tunes that fall on just the right side of maudlin. As with Bone Machine's "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me", "What's He Building?" is an experiment in word jazz that owes a debt to its creator, Ken Nordine. Waits has again assembled a crew of attuned sidemen (including Primus and steadfast backers Ralph Carney, Larry Taylor, and Joe Gore). And, as always, Waits and his wife-co-songwriter-co-producer Kathleen Brennan exhibit an uncanny ear for the arcane. In the end, Mule Variations is the aural equivalent of a salvage shop that, while largely familiar, still has a few secluded chambers and trap doors. --Steven Stolder
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mr Waits; A Bonzai Aphrodite and Other Stories ( nevertoolate #004 ),
By
This review is from: Mule Variations (Audio CD)
35 years at the top of his game.
Between 1973's 'Closing Time' and the triple-whammy of 'Orphans' in 2006 Mr Waits has been resonsible for a whole lot of damned fine music winging its' way out into this cracked and weary world of ours. Every Waits fan will have their own favorite album. Today mine is 'Mule Variations' (this time next year maybe it'll be 'Small Change' again, or maybe 'Alice', or maybe....). Released in 1999 on the Anti label this collection of sixteen pieces seems to me to bring together everything that makes this great maverick truly unique. Parched, blistering rock and roll; drunken bar-room blues; gentle heart-wringing ballads; deeply unsettling monologues. ....and stories! Always with the stories ! Painting small worlds alive with words and music has always been his greatest gift. Circus sideshow eccentrics; marginal paranoid loners and drifters and losers and lovers line up to share their hopes and fears and longings. ....and stomping ! Always with the stomping ! All manner of things get thumped and slapped and crunched ( even drums sometimes ) to create the kind of rhythmic mayhem and density of raw emotional sound which only this master could muster. Guitarist Marc Ribot's solo on 'Cold Water' must have stripped the paint off the ceiling. ....and suddenly it all falls away and there in the corner is a man with a crooked hat and a broken down piano singing a bruised and tender love song ( 'Take It With Me' ) of such hushed intimacy that one can barely breathe until it's over. This man and his many worlds are indivisible and precious.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A man could wait a long time,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mule Variations (Audio CD)
I have given up seeing Tom appear on stage in these parts but this will do for now. As ever, it has everything that one could expect - from the growling jazz to the type of song ("Hold On") which Bruce would have gobbled up in his heyday. Speaking of which, I doubt if Tom has had aheyday and, for me, that's a good thing. In his recent "2 Lectures" cd, Nick Cave called on Tom Waits when discussing the secret life of the love song and this is only right. Tom Waits is one of the great chroniclers of love - a particularly American kind of love at once urban and small town. There is something of the James Ellroy about Tom Waits - loose but still there. Finally, a word for the delicate and most wonderful, "Georgia Lee". This is Tom Waits at his most beautiful. A living genius when most geniuses are long gone.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tom Waits' Best Work,
By A Customer
This review is from: Mule Variations (Audio CD)
I've got most of Tom Waits' albums from Closing Time to Mule Variations and I have to say this is probably his best yet. Every one of his albums has its classics but MV outdoes itself. Its worth the price just for 'Picture in a Frame' which is one the simplest and most impressive songs he's done. MV is also an incredibly varied album and shows off how well Tom can switch between radically different styles and make them all fit together. If you're new to Tom Waits, this is definitely the place to start.
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