Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
A Classic, 1 Jan 2007
I have been a fan of Tom Waits since 1973 when 'Closing Time' was released. I have just about everything he has released since then and I have had the privilege of twice seeing him perform live.
Like all great songwriters with extensive back catalogues, there has been the occasional blip but overall the quality has remained high and 'Orphans' has raised the bar even higher by being an absolute classic.
Brilliant songs and musings to make you laugh, cry and rock. And all beautifully presented in a quality package.
If you are not yet into Tom Waits then I recommend that you listen to this album and discover a genius.
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102 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
Worth waiting for, 6 Nov 2006
Three discs, fifty-four songs, thirty new and previously unheard recordings sounds like pretty standard fare for an artist box set, and yet, Orphans has as much in common with a simple career retrospective as Tom Waits does with the average singer songwriter.
The three discs are divided by genre: Brawlers is chock full of raucous blues and full-throated juke-joint stomps, Bawlers contains a selection of Celtic and country ballads, waltzes, lullabies, piano, and classic lyrical Waits' songs, while Bastards is filled with experimental music, stories and jokes.
The first disc, Brawlers, sees Waits channel The Rolling Stones, Captain Beefheart, Muddy Waters and T-Rex. The first of the new songs, LowDown, is in pure garage rock mode, with his 20-year-old son, Casey, on drums and San Francisco's blues icon, Ron Hacker, on guitar. A cover of The Ramones's The Return Of Jackie And Judy rubs shoulders with more traditional numbers like Bottom Of The World and Rains On Me.
Stealing the show, however, is Road To Peace, Waits's staggering condemnation of the Bush government and a companion piece to Day After Tomorrow from his previous album, Real Gone. It is, without question, one of the finest anti war songs ever penned.
The lonesome ballads and tender songs of innocence and hope on Bawlers come in sharp contrast to the other two discs and showcase Waits at his most romantic. The plaintive laments of Tell It To Me and Fannin Street meld poignantly with saloon songs of betrayal and despair like The World Keeps Turning. The bitter cabaret of Little Drop Of Poison (originally from the soundtrack to End Of Violence and, later, Shrek 2) explores what the heart gives and what it takes away.
It's the indefinable diversions into Waits's experimental side that are the hallmark of Bastards. The disturbing bedtime fable that is Children's Story, precedes a maniacal version of Heigh Ho, from Disney's Snow White & The Seven Dwarves and a cackling take on Daniel Johnston's King Kong. The poignant reminiscence of car ownership on The Pontiac and the spoken word Army Ants ensures that Bastards is anything but predictable.
Ever the stylistic nomad, Waits takes on the roles of inventive vocalist, literary lyricist, barking preacher, rabid poet, romantic melodist, innovative arranger and pioneer of sonic worlds as he scats, wheezes, blurts, rages, weeps, whispers and chugs through the three discs. Orphans will move the heart, shake the body and expand the soul.
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
He continues to do it, 21 Dec 2006
I have had the privelige of listening to Tom Waits for the last 20 years and can't comprehend how he continues to manage to produce music of this quality. The icons of music of the last 3 or 4 decades can not, in my opinion, come close to him.
Those of us who have become engaged with him will love this album and those who are not will become so should they opt to get this album. What amazes me is that this feels like a great place to start exploring the man and his music but I have felt like that about virtually all of his work. I hope that all enjoy this as much as I do.
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