Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones

Description

Condition: Brand New

• Description
• Release details
• Tracklist

• Swordfishtrombones (1983) marked a radical reinvention for Tom Waits, both sonically and artistically. Departing from the jazzy barroom ballads that had defined his earlier work, Waits embraced a raw, experimental aesthetic built on clattering percussion, odd instrumentation (like marimbas and pump organs), and fragmented, dreamlike storytelling. The album feels like a dusty suitcase of American surrealismpopulated by drifters, soldiers, and misfitsset to a sonic collage that’s as unsettling as it is captivating.
  The albums production, which Waits handled himself for the first time, prioritizes texture and mood over polish, drawing comparisons to Captain Beefheart and Kurt Weill. Tracks like Underground and 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six explode with percussive energy, while Johnsburg, Illinois and Soldiers Things show he hadnt abandoned tenderness entirely. Swordfishtrombones didnt just reshape his careerit laid the groundwork for a whole generation of genre-defying, voice-driven storytelling in music.
  Reviews

  Tom Waits has made one of the most genuinely experimental albums of the decade, and paradoxically one of the most accessible. The Guardian

  A brilliant and brave record that sounds like nothing elsethen or now. Rolling Stone

  This is Waits smashing his piano balladeer persona with a sledgehammer and building a strange and wonderful machine from the pieces. Pitchfork

  Its as if Waits crawled inside a rusted carnival organ and sang out from the inside. The result is thrilling. Mojo

  Swordfishtrombones is the moment Waits stopped being a character and became a universe. NME

  Review

  AllMusic rating: AllMusic users: (2,273 votes) Read the AllMusic.com review

• Artist: Tom Waits Label: Island Records, UMe Format: LP Units: 1 Country: US Genre: Pop & Rock Style: Abstract, Alternative Rock, Experimental

• A1 Underground
  A2 Shore Leave
  A3 Dave The Butcher (Instrumental)
  A4 Johnsburg, Illinois
  A5 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six
  A6 Town With No Cheer
  A7 In The Neighborhood
  B1 Just Another Sucker On The Vine (Instrumental)
  B2 Frank’S Wild Years
  B3 Swordfishtrombone
  B4 Down, Down, Down
  B5 Soldier’S Things
  B6 Gin Soaked Boy
  B7 Trouble’S Braids
  B8 Rainbirds (Instrumental)