Tom Waits – Real Gone

This whole album is a beautiful menagerie of gobs of mud and melody and shrapnel all pressed and force molded into songs. It's a masterpiece, absolutely.

Somehow I skipped over this in Tom’s oeuvre but it’s fast become a favorite. Love Tom as I do, I sometimes find his albums very disparate in mood. This one has groove through and through, and lots of the slow to mid-tempo I particularly like. Marc Ribot is in top form. His guitar was made for Tom’s atmosphere.

I only having streaming to compare the vinyl to, but it sounds fantastic. It’s a dense and often noisy affair with grit on grit. Nice to have a 2xlp of his work. It really lets it breathe.

I got the remix LP--I wish it had a booklet explaining the process or motivation here, otherwise it seems like overwriting history. I loved Real Gone (cd) for years and years: So gritty, and playful, and at times a little tired, but certainly not bland. I had heard he gave his son the reins to mix the CD, and it has a kind of early home PC/Cubase/Acid charm to it.

Fans of Bone Machine will love the CD. Fans of Swordfishtrombones or Bad as Me will likely prefer the LP, as it is less distorted and more lush with instrument variety. The radio tracks (Metropolitan Glide, Rain, and Day after Tomorrow) are just about the same, I think. But if you've only had the CD since it came out, this will blow your mind!

I liked how I could understand pretty much all the words on the LP. And the song of the Spooky Barn is thus all the richer. But because they are so different, neither mix will be the Ultimate. I guess I figured this updated version was full of restored tracks, clearer EQ settings; if Waits/Brennan added new material in 2017, it's a different affair, less of a scientific discovery and more of an experiment. I'm glad it exists, though, less edgy though it is. The horns on Hoist that Rag do come across as an afterthought, and make the song feel overproduced. Don't return to the scene of the crime, Waits! It took me a long time to enjoy the drawn-out minimalism of Sins of the Father on the CD, and this one is similar but has a ton of subtle fx.

If you haven't heard it, give it a spin. I did think it felt like a televised big production performance of Real Gone coming sentimentally and way later in time, crooned with fondness and signature intent. That's pretty Waits right there.

This is SUCH an awesome album. Of all the albums Waits has made, this is my favorite. As one of the other reviewers put it, this is a delta-blues meets lo-fi hip-hop album. A great combo that only Waits can pull off. Lots of record scratching, dirty guitars, unique drumming, beatboxing and more uniqueness than you can shake a stick at. Give it a listen! There's nothing else like it.

‘Real Gone' was described in the press release, as ‘cubist funk' whatever that means but it certain isn’t mainstream. Lots of examples of his love of the vocoder/megaphone thing (which is on ‘concrete mix' setting for many of the songs on the album) (see photo http://discogs.versitio.com/artist/Tom+Waits). Love it? More than likely hate it. Especially when the man has such a naturally great emotive and distinctive voice. Tom's early releases epitomised the smokin', gamblin', drunk, jazz piano playing bum, extraordinary poet that knew all the LA strippers in the dark side of town. For many fans his best work was the first eight albums on Asylum (see ‘Used Songs: 1973-1980' (released 2001). These are so ‘normal' compared to his latest material that it could be a different artist altogether. I initially found ‘Real Gone' hard work but he's nearly made the connection between accessible and leftfield. It opens with ‘Top Of The Hill', which is one of the best tracks (featuring son Casey on Turntables and Tom doing some beat box growling). This is followed by the (unusually for Waits) political ‘Hoist that Rag' which is a touch Latin/calypso/Cuban. ‘Sins Of The Father' follows which is a slower mellow track with guitar and banjo of Marc Ribot. The rest of the album sort of repeats these ‘styles'; ‘Shake It' and ‘Baby Gonna Leave Me' of beatbox/distorted vocal, ‘How's It Gonna End' and ‘Trampled Rose', ‘Make It Rain' are more typical of the rambling story telling. And there are two stand out tracks, ‘Circus' is spoken vocals over a scratched vinyl backtrack with some classic lines (e.g. “Topping the bill was Horse Faced Ethel and her Marvellous Pigs in satin”). The last track ‘Day After Tomorrow' is Dylanesque and is a moving anti-war story of a Dad reading a letter from his soldier Son longing to coming home. In total, we've got some sort of delta blues meets lo-fi hip-hop. I imagine that if Captain Beefheart were making albums today, it wouldn't sound to far away from the ‘harder' tracks on ‘Real Gone'; especially the 46 seconds of ‘Clang Boom Steam'. Does that help? Not really. I hated it the first time I heard it. However, after repeated plays, it is growing on me. ittedly slowly, but it is. Fair play to Tom (aged 54).