Album Club - Week 148: 3/06/2014: Tom Waits - Blue Valentine (1978)

Another album for another week - this time we have to thank Barry (bazil) for his choice.
Remember to listen to the whole thing before you cast your vote.


Tom Waits - Blue Valentine (1978)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BHPP2C4HL.jpg



Grooveshark

Deezer

Tom Waits is a bit of an acquired taste but if you "get him" you'll like most of his work.
His very name conjures up the image of a smoky night club in the small hours, a piano player groaning words to a couple of customers passed out on the tables.
Its difficult to single out an album so I've gone for my introduction to him in the 80's.


Blue Valentine is probably a good choice for a first TW listen, the songs have melody and are quite catchy,it also contains Kentucky Avenue an autobiographical song about the street where TW grew up, it is my favorite TW song and one of my all time best .

Just like to add, IMO this is very much a late night listen, usually accompanied with a glass of something :)

I'm a Tom Waits fan but, listening to Somewhere, I wasn't sure that I was going to enjoy this one, it seemed as if Tom was trying out different voices to see which one worked best! Poor choice for an album opener IMO, but after that the rest of the album was quite enjoyable. I can see what Bazil means about it being a late night listen, though it was the more uptempo tracks that I enjoyed. Not as engaging as his later work with less conventional instrumentation, such as Rain Dogs, but a good listen nonetheless. I gave it 6/10.

Great choice Baz,
I saved this for last night as per Baz's recommendation but honestly I could listen to Tom Waits anytime , had this been Real Gone (my favourite TW album) it
could of been my first Album Club 10 . Still a worthy 9/10 from me
cheers
Paul

This one gets an 7 from me, apparently effortless musical ability and a good variety of tracks. You do need to be in the right mood however, so not for repeated listening.

Really cannot get on with his voice.
Assume he is taking the pee out of Louis Armstrong but there is no joke.

Not for me at all

0/10 (sorry)

I haven't really listened to much of Tom Waits music so this was pretty much totally new to me. I'm going to give it a 3 out of ten. The music and lyrics are decent but I just am not a fan of his voice, which seems forced and artificial.

I like the musical arrangements but cannot get into his voice at all - sorry. 4/10

It took me a while to like his voice, I think the melodies hit home first then as I "tuned in" to the voice I could enjoy more of his work. His lyrics are brilliant.