Mule Variations

Product Description ------------------- This is the latest release from Tom Waits in nearly 6 years and is possibly the most anticipated record in Tom Wait's 26-year career, according to MTV online. This album includes more edgy experimental sounds that appeal to fans from the Island years and incredible ballads that will appeal to Tom's earliest fans. Track list includes: "Big in Japan,' "Lowside of the Road," "Hold On," "Get Behind the Mule," "Cold Water," "Pony,' "What's He Building?," "Black Market Baby," "Eyeball Kid," "Picture Frame,' "Chocolate Jesus," "Georgia Lee," "Filipino Box Spring Hog," "Take It with Me," "Come on Up to the House" .com ---- Seven years passed between the release of Machine and Mule Variations. During that time Tom Waits eschewed cutting another "conventional" (the term used loosely here) song collection, occupying his time with acting projects, a soundtrack (Night on Earth), a stage project (The Black Rider), and sundry smaller diversions. What's surprising about Mule Variations is how little he's strayed from the old yard through the years. As with his Grammy-winning 1992 outing, Waits intersperses the tough and the tender, mixing exercises in creative noisemaking with tunes that fall on just the right side of maudlin. As with Machine's "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me," "What's He Building?" is an experiment in word jazz that owes a debt to its creator, Ken Nordine. Waits has again assembled a crew of attuned sidemen (including Primus and steadfast backers Ralph Carney, Larry Taylor, and Joe Gore). And, as always, Waits and his wife-cosongwriter-coproducer Kathleen Brennan exhibit an uncanny ear for the arcane. In the end, Mule Variations is the aural equivalent of a salvage shop that, while largely familiar, still has a few secluded chambers and trap doors. --Steven Stolder P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Review ------ Mule Variations is name for a hybrid animal--the offspring of a male ass and a female horse. It's a pretty good description of Waits's aesthetic: Always messing with at least two genres per song, he sticks things together and makes them breed. -- Spin More seen than heard in recent years, Waits proves again why he deserves an audience. -- People Waits has written and sung about the weird, sweet, tortured lives of real people. Mule Variations is more of the queer, wonderful same. -- Mojo See more ( javascript:void(0) )

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