Customer Reviews
More like it - By: F. M. Muse, 16 Jul 2008 
Its hard to believe that this album comes from the same artist who performed on "Small Change"; this is more like it. In contradistinction to the desperately awful vocals on that album, Waits is here a mellow-voiced, yet bluesy edged vocalist entirelyin tune with some fine piano work & the rest of the musicians, elements largely lost on the earlier album. The songs are finely crafted, elegantly phrased & perhaps ultimately timeless. Comparisons with later Joni Mitchell are not out of place here - think "Hejira" - &in places even Dylan & the Eagles more world weary stuff, but then they all draw from the same well, so perhaps it's not so surprising. Thoroughly recommended to almost anyone with a taste for the eclectic. So I look forward to more like it.
What can I say?? - By: Alan D. Evans, 19 Jun 2008 This Album has haunted me since 1985. An old girlfriend used to play it around the time when Rain Dogs came out. This album is beautiful!! And Tom! Well no one has made it through 35 years of producing pure music genius!
Closing Time with more jazz and more attitude - By: Mr. L. R. Buxton, 19 Oct 2007 
Closing Time, Waits' debut, was a fine record, mixing jazz, country, & old, 40s-influenced rolling melodies, & fine for late-night lovers. This follow-up sees Waits switch to a producer he had a better rapport with, Bones Howe, & together they made this equally enjoyable album.
Here, though, the more devil-may-care jazz that was understated on the debut is morein evidence, with a more trenchant tone to the lyrics ( see the opening number ) & even spoken-word recitals ( Diamonds On My Windshield ) that Waits would develop further. That said, there's some nicely understated moments too, such as the closing "Ghosts Of Saturday Night", the title track, & the beautiful 'going away' ballad, "Shiver Me Timbers".
Good stuff.
Probably my favourite album of all time - By: W.T.A, 14 Sep 2007 I went to New York a couple of years back & for some reason everytime I hear this album it takes me back there- even though I'd never heard it at the time. I absolutely adore this album- so much so that my wife & I had it playingin the hospital when my wife gave birth to our first son. She wasn't paying too much attention to it at the time, but it's an album that has become a huge part of my life. Please Call Me Baby, Shiver My Timbers & the title track are probably the standout tracks, but there is not a weak song on the album. Beautiful & sublime melodies with lyrics to match. The instrumentation is second to none. Want to get into Tom Waits' but don't know where to start? This is as good a place as any. Trust me- you will fallin love with this album.
Unbelievably Good - By: Cuban Heel, 01 Sep 2007 This album is a real find. Absolutely fantastic. It's pretty muchin a class & genre of its own - probably not revisited until Nick Cave's 'Boatman's Call'in the 90s. Lyrically it's kind of somewhere between Bob Dylan & Springsteen, filtered through the literary influences of Jack Kerouac & Charles Bukowski. Probably the best way to describe it is with some kind of scenario. Imagine you're outin New York late at night, drunk as you've ever been, & you stumble into an underground jazz cafe at 2am. Through the haze of cigarette smoke you can just about see this dishevelled guy sitting at a piano who is playing surprisingly intricate & moving music while singingin a rasping blues voice about love & lossin the back alleys of America. That pretty much sums it up.
'New Coat of Paint' sounds like Dylan covering a Nina Simone track. 'Looking for the Heart of Saturday Night' is a bit more mainstream - maybe Jackson Browne if he was ever feeling a bit suicidal. 'Please Call me Baby' is just beautiful. And my favourite, surprisingly, is 'Diamonds on my Windshield' which is more performance poetry than a song, but is so original it's difficult not to love it. "There's fifteen feet of snowin the East & it's colder than a well-digger's ass". When was the last time you heard a line THAT good on a cd?
Without being too pretentious, let's be honest about life for a minute. Most of us aren't supermodels, most of us don't feel happy & fantastic all the time, most of us can't sing like angels. And yet we all find happiness & beautyin the world on a pretty regular basis. This album is the sound of someone who is probably even less of a supermodel than you or I, who is less happy & more screwed up than we are, who sings like a drunk who's just woken upin a dumpster, & yet he finds beauty & poignancy all around him. There's something pretty life affirming about that. I haven't listened to this album once without being moved like I've never been moved before.
I know Waits went on to create some pretty innovative, & pretty out-there music after this. But this is as honest & heart-rending as it gets. If you want something to listen to over a glass of whisky or a bottle of wine late at night, seriously, you should look no further than this. It doesn't get any better.
