Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones

Swordfishtrombones ushered in a new and critically-acclaimed musical era for Waits and his longtime songwriting and production partner, his wife, Kathleen Brennan. Waits went from ‘70's-era "bluesy, boozy" wordsmith and melodist with seven albums behind him to sound sculptor, miner of the subconscious, abstract orchestrator, sonic cubist-while retaining his innate lyricism, melodic invention, and humanity.

As he put it in a 1983 interview: "I tried to listen to the noise in my head and invent some junkyard orchestral deviation — a mutant apparatus to drive this noise into a wreck collection." It's a Waits-arranged pastiche, a variety of atmospheres from different sound planets. There is the warped, marching-army-ants music of "Underground," an imitating chant about people living below cities, but there was also the poignancy of the spare piano ballad, "Soldier's Things," the good bar yarn, "Frank's Wild Years," the tender, minimalist paean to Waits' wife and muse, Kathleen, "Johnsburg, Illinois," and the raggedy anthem to neighborhood chaos, "In the Neighborhood."

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