#1030 Tom Waits - Mule Variations

Here, even more so than usual, Waits get by on details - on atmosphere, on personality, on the creaks and groans and sub-note croaks that pepper his songs. The highlights are the stompers, the drunken staggerers, the songs that play up Waits' demented, chaotic side, while the ballads are weathered and soulful but not altogether inspiring. Between them its a lurching skeleton, heavy with years, prickling with secrets, full of crypic lines and broken melodies, inspiring curiosity and sadness and release 4/5