music monday: Closing Time by Tom Waits

Tom Waits - Closing Time

When many people hear the name Tom Waits, they conjure images of a drunk sounding cookie monster belting avant-garde jazz sing-songwriter music. Now, this image is completely accurate; it describes most of his fantastic output. Closing Time his first album was quite different than many of his other album. First off, this is before he became too much of a cartoon character. His drunken piano man persona is definitely already present, but his voice lacks much of the gravel that became his signature. Jazz plays a heavy part in the styling of this album, but it doesn't have the extremely inaccessible artiness of his other stuff. Instead, Closing Time is a collection of beautiful piano ballads surrounded by lovely string and horn arrangements. There are some different styles present. The jazz of the title track, "Virginia Avenue", and "Grapefruit Moon" are places next to low-key country tunes like "Ol' 55" (a hit when covered by the Eagles) and "Rosie". "Martha" a nostalgic trip through memories of lost love foreshadows much of his later work and nearly makes me cry everytime I hear it. Tom Waits uses his voice to great effect at bringing out the sad emotions of these songs.

This stands as a masterpiece, which is impressive since it was his debut. Waits would make albums that rival this effort, but he has yet to top it. This is a good place to start in Tom Waits catalogue of twenty or so albums to date.