Tom Waits - Real Gone

  by Jon Rogers

published: 27 / 9 / 2004

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Review

"Cubist funk" is how Tom Waits describes his blend of Captain Beefheart's dust-blown desert whines and Mississippi delta blues, all mixed together with some cacophanous industrial clanging as he spins out yet another collection of down on your luck tales of those whose American dream turned out to be a nightmare. As with 1999's 'Mule Variations' and the most recent 'Alice' and 'Blood Money', 'Real Gone' is once again packed full of unsettling tales, disjointed, dissonant rhythms and Waits' one-too-many whiskeys and Woodbines, been up all night croaky voice. His style has come a long way since his first album 'Closing Time' in 1973. 'Real Gone' though is very much second-rate Waits. The opening 'Top of the Hill' whirls and clanks along as if all the musicians are playing a different song - at the same time. A muddled, grubby mess which just goes round and round in circles. The following 'Hoist that Rag' is little better, with Waits pleading the listener to "Hoist that rag" to yet another rambling, mushy mess of musical accompaniment. 'Clang Boom Steam' does simply that - and little else. Fortunately it lasts less than a minute. 'Shake It' rumbles and rumbles along as if some clockwork toy band had been forced to undergo electric shock therapy. Even the intriguingly titled 'Don't Go into the Barn', although trying to recapture Waits' musical heyday of 'Swordfishtrombones' simply comes across like some drunken bum uttering incomprehensible gibberish. The album isn't without merit though. The centrepiece, the 10-minute 'Sins of the Father' is a wonderfully gripping, claustrophobic Freudian tale of familial guilt and desire for retribution and acceptance: "I'm gonna wash the sins of my father I'm gonna wash the sins of my mother I'm gonna wash the sins of my brother Till the water runs clear" Instead of Waits ramming it all down the listener's throat, 'Sins of the Father' glides along, prefering subtlety over the sledgehammer assault of the earlier songs. 'How's it Gonna End' also harks back to Waits of yore, instead of sounding like a messianic barker prophesising doom and gloom. Here he's more effective for being less in your face. The apocalyptic vision is ever present though: "Everyone wants to know, How it going to end?" 'Dead and Lovely' is more of the same with its sorry tale of a middle class girl who ends up "forever dead" and a mournful melody which slides seductively along. A handful of decent songs though is hardly value for money, no matter how eccentric and obtuse Waits may be. For the most part 'Real Gone' simply sounds like a collection of B-sides and outtakes from his last few albums and stuck together. Disappointment of the year.

Track Listing:-

1 Top of the Hill
2 Hoist That Rag
3 Sins of My Father
4 Shake It
5 Don't Go Into That Barn
6 How's It Gonna End
7 Metropolitan Glide
8 Dead and Lovely
9 Circus
10 Trampled Rose
11 Green Grass
12 Baby Gonna Leave Me
13 Clang Boom Steam
14 Make It Rain
15 Day After Tomorrow
16 Chick A Boom

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