Tom Waits' 'Bad as Me' Review

"No good you say? Well, that's good enough for me. You're the same kind bad as me."

I'm not sure what kind of "bad" Tom Waits is, but it most assuredly is not found within the realms of his music. We haven't had a formal Tom Waits album since 2004's Real Gone. However, he's given us plenty of stop-gaps along the way: 2006's Orphans and 2008's masterpiece; Glitter and Doom Live, namely.

Here in late 2011, Waits gives us another chapter in his elegantly crafted, ever-growing, quirky world. Bad As Me is as good as any of them. While it seems a little obvious to say this album blends many of his other albums --the man has a 40 plus year career after all, Bad As me really does.

As I've been listening to it this week, essentially on repeat as I prepared to write this review, I consistently found myself called back to one of Waits' previous albums almost without exception. You could take "Talking at the Same Time" and sneak it into 1992's Bone Machine and no one would be the wiser. "Face to the Highway" has the lyrical elegance of 2001's Mule Variations, yet has the feel of something off 1987's Frank's Wild Years. "Satisfied" is structured almost identical to "Big Black Mariah" from Waits' 1985 masterpiece; Rain Dogs. "Kiss Me" could have been added onto the end of "Blue Valentine". In fact, it may even have the same chords. I haven't figured that out yet, but they're close. Ballads like the beautiful, somber "Last Leaf" sound lifted off the second disc of Orphans. "Bad As Me" reminded me of "Big in Japan" from the aforementioned Mule Variations. You get the point.

Seemingly falling back into familiar patterns can appear as a criticism. Often, it is. In this particular case, however, I don't particularly see it as such. By now, most of us Waits fans know what we're going to get from the legendary songwriter and we're OK with it. It's not that his albums are stale or predictable, we just know our way around the city. Waits has shown us the main roads and major landmarks throughout his career; he just continues to flesh out the alleys and dark corners.

One area that I was extremely pleased with was the shock I experienced at how good Waits' vocals still are. The last few albums have had him in a very deep growl that appeared to just be the direction he was going as his voice changed into his older years. Here, Waits' vocals are on par with just about any of his albums. I've secretly longed to hear a re-emergence of the vocals from the later '70's and early '80s and Bad As Me delivers that. The vocal style on "Satisfied" has a distinct similarity to the vocals on songs like "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard;" among my favorite Waits' vocal performances. Bad As Me at once feels brand new but also resembles an old, weathered Waits record. With that contrast in play, it serves as a great catch-all style album of Waits discography, but because of that, I wouldn't say it's where a new listener should start.

Tom Waits isn't in the business of shocking us anymore. Sometimes though, there's no substitute for knowing exactly what you're doing. Waits does.

Brian is an active musician and songwriter with the band Something With Trees and spends a lot of his time perusing around the music world in one form or another. Follow his music blog if you'd like. He also occasionally contributes to Paper Trail Music; an indie music blog out of Brooklyn.

Sources
Pitchfork: Tom Waits Bad As Me Review