TOM WAITS

TOM WAITS
BLOOD MONEY (2002)
320 KBPS

For Tom Waits to reinvent himself at this point in his career would probably be a mistake, given that he remains as inimitable today as he was when he recorded Closing Time in 1973. Moody at best, dark for sure, BLOOD MONEY, with vaudeville-esque, boot-stomp-like percussion romps such as "Misery is the River of the World" and "God's Away on Business," Waits revisits his own territory. The melody of "Coney Island Girl" is so reminiscent of "Innocent When You Dream" from FRANK'S WILD YEARS that Waits could either be said to be winking to or ripping off himself. While Blood Money is not as original or chaotically magnificent as RAIN DOGS or BONE MACHINE, it does contain Waits' characteristic brilliance. Colin Stetson's clarinet in "All the World is Green" and his slow-swerving horns in "Another Man's Vine," make the album worth owning. These songs are familiar to the Waits pantheon but are carried off so well that they stand alone as masterpieces. "The Part You Throw Away," a heartbreaking song of music's oldest subject, is just lovely. The best compliment one can pay an album is that it gets better and is more revealing with each listen. That is true of this one. All said, BLOOD MONEY is good work, standard fare for Waits, which is to say that it's better than most albums released these days, even if it's not on the level with his best efforts.

1. Misery Is The River of the World
2. Everything Goes to Hell
3. Coney Island Baby
4. All The World Is Green
5. God's Away On Busines
6. Another Man's Vine
7. Knife Chase
8. Lullaby
9. Starving In The Belly Of A Whale
10. The Part You Throw Away
11. Woe
12. Calliope
13. A Good Man Is Hard To Find