Buy this one!

A review of "Blood Money" by Tom Waits

If you know anything at all about Tom Waits you will know that he is an acquired taste. A taste that only a select few seemed to acquire, although this group did seem to include a lot of musicians and those with a deeper knowledge of music. This was no doubt due to Tom’s raspy voice, his abrasive arrangements and eccentric lyrics which made his work difficult to approach. However with the release of this album and its companion piece “Alice” this is no longer so true. The generally smooth arrangements, beautiful melodies and evocative lyrics make a truly wonderful and reasonably digestible package despite the depressing subject matter and Tom’s unique voice.

I will not be discussing Alice in this review, except to say that it is similar in style to Blood Money and pretty well equally good, though containing less in the way of abrasive material and hence being even more approachable. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

At this point in his career Tom has hit on a unique instrumentation setup that gives him a good range of colour while maintaining an incredible expressive ability and a lovely smooth acoustic sound. He uses piano, pedal reed organ, clarinet, sax, trumpet, violin, cello, marimba and tubular bells. Other instruments are used off and on but these are the main ones.

Note that drums are generally not used. This allows the listener to forget about rhythm and concentrate on the melody and harmony. It also allows the group to play acoustically, which allows them to listen properly to each other and form the most perfect ensemble.

Many of the instruments are blown or bowed which means that the player is in control right through the note. This gives maximum expression, in a way that you cannot achieve with guitar or piano. Listen to the baritone horn and low tenor sax in “Another Man’s Vine” to see what I mean. The backing simply comes alive when it is scored like this.

It is a mark of genius that where genius has been it looks so obvious that people marvel that it was not done before. Such is the case with this instrumentation. Who would have thought of bringing back the old pedal reed organ? But it is just so effective here! The marimba is used a lot and its effect is to bring the insane side out in a less threatening way. Brilliant! And of course I have already mentioned the effect of the controlled note instruments. Not only is this a great ensemble in its own right but it is absolutely tailor-made to go with Tom Waits’ amazing voice. It really is a wonderful sound, more power to Tom for finding it.

No review of Tom Waits can be complete without a discussion of his voice, for this is the crux of anyone’s acceptance or rejection of this latter-day musical genius. Ultimately one must accept Tom’s voice in order to enjoy his work, and it is not the kind of voice that we are brought up to readily accept. His voice is croaky, raspy, usually deep and a bit lazy with regard to pitch, none which characteristics are normally regarded as good singing. However, he does know where the note is, even though he may slide up to it, he actually has an excellent range of more than 2 octaves, he commands a great range of tone from a rich whiskey velvet to a angry strident rasp and of course he has in spades that thing that you can’t buy or teach: CHARACTER.

In the past I had enjoyed some of Tom’s work but bridled at complete acceptance because of his voice, which I considered he had inexcusably ruined, (listen to his lovely first album “Closing Time” to hear how it was before he wrecked it), but on this album he has got the control and the velvet and I absolutely love it. It so perfectly suits his songs that I can’t imagine any other voice being an improvement.

As a singer myself I understand the difficulties of the singers journey, especially if you are a bass. I share some of Tom’s vocal characteristics and I rejoice that he has been able to succeed with the voice that he has, not only in terms of selling albums, but in terms of the respect that he has from other singers. My range is much the same as Tom’s and it is wonderful for me to be able sing someone’s songs without having to drop the key.

The songs on this album are superb! If any name act wakes up to how good they are they will have hits aplenty. Tome Waits has always had a marvellous touch with a ballad, right from the first album and this work is no exception. “Coney Island Baby” is an instant classic, likewise “All The World Is Green”, “Another Man’s Vine” is chilling, “Lullaby” is beautifully tragic and “Woe” makes the hairs stand up on my neck; it is an unforgettable short, sweet, twisted gem, in the same manner as Berlioz's waltz from Faust.

Those slow songs would be enough reason to buy this album but the up tempo and aggressive numbers are also classics. “Misery Is The River Of The World” is fantastic, as is “Starving In The Belly Of The Whale” and “God’s Away On Business”. Medium tempo pieces like “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” are superb as well.

Really there are only a couple of sub-brilliant numbers on this album, (namely the 2 instrumentals), and they can be forgiven since they fit in so well with the theme of this work.

This album is a studio version of the music written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan for the stage play “Woyzeck”, which deals with the unhappy life of a German soldier who was driven mad by bizarre army medical experiments and infidelity, which led him to murder his lover. One must bear this in mind when considering the theme of this album as a whole and the depressing and crazy lyrics to many of the songs.

It is a testament to the depth of understanding in Tom and his wife that they have been able to get so well inside such an unpleasant story and find beauty in the soul of this poverello. There is also much in what they have done that strikes a chord with those of us who have been mistreated by fate and circumstance in a greedy, corrupt and uncaring modern world.

Consider “Misery Is The River Of The World”. Have you ever heard this sentiment put so baldly? Nothing is held back: “All the good in the world you can put inside a thimble, and still have room for you and me”. Man that is hardl! And I love the ancient references in it including “Call no man happy til he die”. I happened to be reading Herodotus at the time and it is indeed from his account of the downfall of Croesus that this comes.

The pessimism is relentless, as is appropriate for the subject matter. From the righteous anger of “God’s Away On Business”: “Who were the ones we left in charge? Killers, thieves and lawyers.” to the bitterness of “Lullaby”: “Nothing’s ever yours to keep. Close your eyes, go to sleep”, to the prostitute’s resignation in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”: “Only strangers sleep in my bed. My favourite words are good-bye and my favourite colour is red.”.

Fantastic words that truly do justice to such a hard topic. Of course this makes this album hard to digest, but for those of us who are mature enough to want to see the cold reality of life there is no substitute for the truth. Full marks to Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan for serving it up.

So there it is. An album that is pretty well flawless in every department: melody, harmony, lyrics, musicianship, arrangement, instrumentation and singing, that hangs together with a cohesive theme, that is full of inspiration, with a wonderful unique sound. This is the work of a mature genius absolutely at the top of his game. If you have any depth to your soul there must be something in this for you.

An absolute classic, in my opinion Tom Wait’s best album.
Buy It!

5/5

Warren Mars - 28 August, 2008