Tom Waits - Bad As Me

I have always been a huge fan of Waits' '70's records, but some of his anarchistic, cacophony-laden pieces of his later works, while I appreciate the madness inherent within, have kinda left me tepid. This new CD, however, seems to be a good balance, with some of the craziness tempered with real songs. He still yelps over some circus-styled mania, but also croons over some real ballads, and grooves with some almost - dare I say - "normal" songs. Hell, "Kiss Me" sounds like it could have been from Blue Valentine. But, he also have his loping, off-beat stompers like "Satisfied", which should please fans of any of his styles. "Hell Broke Luce" (funny title) has the pounding percussion of some of his current output, but also shares a feel with numbers like "Pasties and a G-String".

Waits is a real chameleon and the music can be quite hard to describe, but I assume that most people have heard him by now, so you have an idea what he sounds like. Like I said, to me, this is a good mix of his old and new - dig it a lot!