Real Gone

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!

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...

The highpoint of his "career" is generally thought to be the swordfishtrombones and Raindogs albums. Rain dogs is/was my personal favourite but this tour de force is at least as good as these.

His music has developed over the years into a style all of his own and there are the usual extraordinary and compelling characters within his songs here.

What's new?

THIS ALBUM IS POLITICAL AND ANTI-WAR. If I ever had an issue with his material before I would have said it largely took place in a social vacuum, unaffected by the world. It's obvious here however that he feels deeply anguished about the invasion of iraq and the current political state of America. For Real Gone He has penned some of the best anti-war songs since Dylan of the early 60s.

INSTRUMENTALLY Tom has explored some new teritory here, using different instrumentalisation and rythyms including body beat box and using his own voice as an instrument in the back ground (and he's finally dropped the paino ballads). The people playing on this album have largely worked with him for 20 years and you get the feeling that not only is there a great relationship but they would do it for nothing.

This group of songs is his best yet and get under your skin after just one listening.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know what the best musician/artist in the world is capable of, it is the perfect antidote to the mainstream world of glossy over produced non-art that we are told to believe is music BUY BUY BUY