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Track Listings
| 1. Top of the Hill |
| 2. Hoist That Rag |
| 3. Sins of My Father |
| 4. Shake It |
| 5. Don’t Go Into That Barn |
| 6. How’s It Gonna End |
| 7. Metropolitan Glide |
| 8. Dead and Lovely |
| 9. Circus |
| 10. Trampled Rose |
| 11. Green Grass |
| 12. Baby Gonna Leave Me |
| 13. Clang Boom Steam |
| 14. Make It Rain |
| 15. Day After Tomorrow |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
On Real Gone, Tom Waits and his band present a bold musical statement that is equally in tune with modern and traditional values. Blues standards are revisited, and reinvented; atypical blues instrumentation--turntables courtesy of Waits's son, Casey, and banjos--transform and refresh the design of Waits's deeply American sound.
Throughout much of Real Gone, Waits sings of desperate situations in his trademark gravelly howl, conjuring images of emotionally haunted spaces that you would not wish to inhabit but may well be familiar with. "Sins of My Father" is one such lifesong, offering a glimpse into Waits's own world of imperfection. "How's It Gonna End" offers a sepia-stained cinematic take on the theme of departure, peaking with gospel backing vocals, but Waits brings it all back down to ground level with a heartfelt repetition of the song's (mark-less) question title. These are very real songs, honestly presented and without over-elaboration.
Low down and gritty stompers provide what amounts to light relief from Real Gone's more emotionally demanding tracks. Opener "Top Of The Hill" is a raucous, bass-heavy blues number which finds Waits in exuberant form. "Hoist That Rag" follows, providing the album's catchiest hook and most formidable vocal take. Fittingly, though, as the subjects of Waits's roots and his country's changing times are woven through Real Gone's emotive songs, the album ends on a note of Dylan-esque reflection with the beautiful acoustic lake of "Day After Tomorrow". Tom Waits has rarely been a versatile as he is on Real Gone, and the record is all the better for it. --Jonathan Davies
Review
Tom Waits' last two (simultaneously released) albums contained specifically written pieces for the theatre and found him in a distinctly Brechtian mode. While awesome, one still longed for a return to the classic days of Rain Dogs etc. Thus when it was announced that Real Gone featured the old touring band and a collection of new stand-alone songs excitement ran high. But it seems that this is actually quite a departure...What marks Real Gone as a change of direction for Tom are two things: One is his decision to excise any use of piano or keyboards from the recording process. The second is the use of his own voice. Initial stripped-back home-recordings resulted in Tom using his patent growl as the rhythm track, albeit augmented by drummer Brain Mantia (of Primus). Overdriven and primal, these lolloping grunts and wheezes give the whole album a weirdly steam-driven aesthetic, mirrored in lyrics that highlight the relentless grind of life on the underbelly.
Mainly recorded in single takes, the core ensemble of Mantia, Larry Taylor (bass) and Marc Ribot (guitar) swing wild and loose, combining dirty notes with Waits' rasped and shouted lyrics. Additional turntablism by Waits' son Casey adds to the strangely mechanical vibe. Yet it's only the repetitious vibe of men straining under post-industrialism: pile-driven into transgression and misery, but always retaining a gallows humour.
Stories of lost love, bitter regret and human life laid waste seem to be the main currency, but Waits and wife Kathleen Brennan's wordplay always narrowly avoids self-parody by use of fantastically impressionistic imagery and wry couplets. Whether it's the resigned calypso shuffle of ''Hoist That Rag'', the processional blues of ''Make It Rain'' ( which contains the priceless line 'I'm not Able, I'm just Cain') or the jazzy shuffle of ''Dead And Lovely'' (a murder ballad sketched in James Ellroy noir shades), Waits comes on, as always, like some socially aware Captain Beefheart, channelling every drunken hobo and down at heel loser that got swept under society's carpet.
It's incredible that someone who, these days, is undoubtedly more superannuated than itinerant can still sound this convincing. Only on the hilarious ''Don't Go Into The Barn'' does Tom's brand of louche gothic tip into Nick Cave/Night Of The Hunter southern surrealism territory, and you become concerned that this is grim-by-numbers. But in the company of 14 other instant Waits classics this is a mere niggle. The closing track, ''The Day After Tomorrow'', finally arrives to remind you what a consummate songwriter he is, with its war-weary soldier's letter home a stark reminder of the current world state. Already Real Gone looks like being one of Tom's best... --Chris Jones
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Challenging,
This review is from: Real Gone (Audio CD)
Even as a long time Waits fan, it took me a couple of listens to get into this album... but then the one thing you could never accuse him of is writing by numbers or simply to please his fans. The most obvious shift in style compared to Mule / Blood Money / Alice is the absence of piano from the album and the addition of son Casey's turntables and the use of looped samples of Waits hollering and growling in his bathroom as backing for some tracks. More familiar is the return of Marc Ribot's catchy guitar riffs that were common place on the mid 80's trilogy of Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs and Frank's Wild Years.As with almost all of Waits' albums, this is superbly put together in terms of the sequence of tracks... perhaps the only one I'm not completely sold on is the opening track "Top of the hill", from there onwards it's all pretty superb. Highlights include the savagely catchy and lyrically sharp "Hoist that rag", the 11 minutes of "Sins of the Father" and the timelessly poignant closing piece "Day after tomorrow". I also really like the manic style of "Shake it" and "Don't go into that barn"... the blues guitar based "Make it Rain".... and the ironic shmaltzy style of "Dead and Lovely" and "Trampled Rose". On the whole this album easily lives up to Waits' reputation for producing innovative and challenging music... his best work since Bone Machine by some distance!
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Long aWaited return.,
By
This review is from: Real Gone (Audio CD)
Alright, so it hasn't been THAT long, but it feels like it - I just wanted to use that shockingly bad pun. Anyway:Few and far between were the rumours of just what direction Tom Waits would go with his next record, climaxing in the month before Real Gone's release in an explosion of strange, mind-bending and ultimately confusing reviews. So just what the hell did this thing sound like? As one reviewer put it, the opening track to some will simply be "impenetrable". It's an interesting hybrid of god-knows how many different styles, but it loops and swirls in such a way that it's hard to pin down and actually enjoy listening to. Don't let this put you off if it's too far gone though, it does become more accessible. Hoist That Rag is a thankful reassurance that you won't have to like this album just because you feel this should and the 10:36 of Sins of My Father is a lengthy but worthy journey and definately one of my favourite tracks on the CD so far. I won't go any further into listing the songs and their merits, but it is a mixure of all the styles you heard it was, it is new, at times strange but always Tom Waits. If you've been a fan of his previous work from Blue Valentine to Swordfishtrombones, from Rain Dogs to Heartattack and Vine, you will like this album. It will grow on you and you may even love it. Along with Mark Lanegan's Bubblegum, this is one of the best albums released in the last year. Perhaps not a good place for someone new to Tom Waits to start their collection though...
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tom does it again!!,
By
This review is from: Real Gone (Audio CD)
I have been waiting (ha ha) for ages for a new album from the god of gothic blues and i am happy to say that this ranks up as one of his best.For the first time in his 30 year career he has shunned the piano for more typical rock instruments, but has come up with something never heard before...
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