339 - Tom Waits - The Heart of Saturday Night

[csberry]

I was caught off-guard by The Heart of Saturday Night. Tom doesn't sound like he's been chewing gravel and smoking cigars for 5 decades on this album. I had these tracks in a playlist with the surrounding albums on the Rolling Stone list. I repeatedly listened to Damaged before moving on to this. I forgot what was after Black Flag and actually thought I had come across a Dr. John collection recorded during a depressing period. While you can see how The Heart of Saturday Night fits into the evolution of Tom Waits, if you know his later works first, this album will likely come across as too straight-forward and maybe even watered down. Tom wrote these songs - there are the quirky characters being described with odd imagery. However, I never really felt that the Tom Waits that has intrigued me with his 80's through 90's releases was singing on this album. If you like Dr. John, Randy Newman, Lyle Lovett, and Richard Thompson, but find his 80's and later albums to be too odd...this is the era of Tom's career for you.

Songs I knew I liked: None

Songs I didn't know but now like: "Diamonds On My Windshield" and "Fumblin' With the Blues"

Songs I can go the rest of my life without hearing again: I didn't dislike any of the songs as much as I just didn't feel attracted to any. My post-it note was nearly blank instead of a collection of song titles of ones I enjoyed or hated.