Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (1985) [Japanese SHM-SACD 2014]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 53:58 minutes | Scans included | 2.18 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 993 MB
With its jarring rhythms and unusual instrumentation — marimba, accordion, various percussion — as well as its frequently surreal lyrics, Rain Dogs is very much a follow-up to Swordfishtrombones, which is to say that it sounds for the most part like The Threepenny Opera being sung by Howlin’ Wolf. The chief musical difference is the introduction of guitarist Marc Ribot, who adds his noisy leads to the general cacophony. But Rain Dogs is sprawling where its predecessor had been focused: Tom Waits’ lyrics here sometimes are imaginative to the point of obscurity, seemingly chosen to fit the rhythms rather than for sense. In the course of 19 tracks and 54 minutes, Waits sometimes goes back to the more conventional music of his earlier records, which seems like a retreat, though such tracks as the catchy “Hang Down Your Head,” “Time,” and especially “Downtown Train” (frequently covered and finally turned into a Top Ten hit by Rod Stewart five years later) provide some relief as well as variety. Rain Dogs can’t surprise as Swordfishtrombones had, and in his attempt to continue in the direction suggested by that album, Waits occasionally borders on the chaotic (which may only be to say that, like most of his records, this one is uneven). But much of the music matches the earlier album, and there is so much of it that that is enough to qualify Rain Dogs as one of Waits’ better albums.
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Tom Waits – The Heart Of Saturday Night (Remastered) (1974/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 41:33 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Anti – Epitaph
The Heart of Saturday Night, largely dispenses with the romance in favor of poetic depictions of the same setting. The album contains the same mixture of folk, blues, and jazz as its predecessor, with producer Bones Howe occasionally bringing in an orchestra to underscore the loping melodies.
On his second album, Waits moved beyond the simple folk-rock arrangements of his debut to explore jazzier realms. Though artistically Waits was still in his infancy, it was here that he began to develop the bedraggled, chain-smoking, whiskey-swilling, beat poetry-spouting street character image that he expanded on throughout the ’70s. The arrangements are based around Waits’ voice (beginning to develop that famous rasp) and piano, supported ’50s-style West Coast jazz touches. Since Waits was still struggling through the imitation phase of his fascination with the writing of Kerouac, Bukowski, etc., some of the lyrics seem callow, but even at this early stage he could still produce gems. “The Heart of Saturday Night” (sort of a low-key sequel to “Ol’ ’55”) and the late-night lonesome blues of “Please Call Me Baby” are worth the price of entry in and of themselves.
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