Reviews (page 2 of 8)
Jumps from Cohen to Springsteen to 60s Disney villain - very original 5
People really SHOULD listen to this before they die. Because, dammit, we need to listen to weird music. We need to listen to pop and not resent it. We need to listen to people doing weird shit like this, too! Listenable and curiosity inducing, why the fuck not. Thanks Tom.
Tom Waits is an American Treasure and the definition of unique. He's pretty much always gonna get a five from me. Great stuff here. 5
This is a strange one, but a great one. I haven't heard much of Tom Waits' music before, but this was excellent. This was released in the middle of the 1980s, yet with the possible exception of "Downtown Train" (an album highlight), it doesn't sound like it is from that time period at all. A really cool, unique atmosphere, and Waits' unique voice adds a lot of character to the songs. I'm sometimes fond of unconventional voices, they can sometimes add a lot to the overall product. This is a fantastic album, and doesn't overstay it's welcome despite having a large number of songs. Alright then, I'm off to relisten to this album and check out more of Tom Waits' discography.
Is this the best Tom Waits album? Possibly. I loved it.
Best album ever 5/5
classic all day long.
Oh yes. This is one of my top albums of all time, ever since it was lent to me by a friend and it served as my introduction to Tom Wait's incredible body of work. I can't be objective about this, and I could go on forever about it, so I won't start.
“If I want a sound, I usually feel better if I've chased it and killed it, skinned it and cooked it.” Every sound on “Rain Dogs” feels as hunted, prepared and sauteed as Tom Waits described. This is most definitely a unique listening experience. More like a collection of tales of vagabonds and outcasts, told to you by a stranger in a bar in exchange for a glass of hooch. Storytelling and folklore that's so vivid, you can almost smell the smoke off his breath as he recounts them to you. The type of stories that are rehearsed and maturing with every telling. I have to admit that I didn't get Tom Waits at first. It took a long time for it to click. But now I appreciate the madman as one of the most original, uncompromising artists of our time. With a voice that sounds somewhere between Oogie Boogie from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Heath Ledger’s Joker, he's a unique presence. In fact, he doesn't feel like he's from our time at all. More like a drifter from the 1940s, going town-to-town, telling his stories to whoever lends him their ear. And he's one of the best storytellers of all time, in the same class as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and Nick Cave. There's nobody else in the world like Tom Waits. He's a true original, always so uniquely himself through and through. I mean, who else would approach the studio like he did? Hitting a chest of drawers with a two-by-four in a bathroom to get a drum sound. Giving instructions such as “Play it like a midget's bar mitzvah.” He's nutty in the best way possible. Thom Yorke described the experience of travelling through this album better than I ever could: “Every track was a short movie set in a mysterious, circus-like down-at-heel America that I had almost no understanding of, with different characters both in the lyrics and the instruments, an entire universe revealed to me for a few minutes only to drop me at the other end of the block – no idea how I’d got there.” Waits has a seriously dark sense of humour. And a way with language like very few others could manage or master. A real wordsmith. I don't pretend to fully understand what he's singing about all of the time, but there's such visual poetry in his words, that paints a picture and an atmosphere that feels so damn real. “Anywhere I Lay My Head” is such an amazing way to end the album. Finishing on the last lyric would be enough for Waits to sign his John Hancock on this masterpiece, but then the N’Orleans style band kicks in and sends us off in style.
Favorite Song: Time
This is a great, gray, gravelly album. Tom Waits rumbles his way through the underbelly of New York and finds a haunting beauty there. Everything about this is interesting, and it is moving and witty in equal measures. Favorite tracks: "Clap Hands," "Downtown Train"
Love Tom Waits. And this is one of my favs by him. .
I love everything Tom Waits has done. Great musician, songwriter, poet. Some of the most profane and achingly beautiful music I've ever heard. This album, along with Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years, marked a new and welcome direction for Waits. Welcome to the intriguing dark side.
5 outta 5 dawgs, RAINED ON!!!
Tender and grotesque - life laid bare, in all its beauty and ugliness.
4.5/5 Idk what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Not mad though, it’s such a unique collection of songs with a consistent theme, if not some differing musical approaches (does that even make sense? Idk.) Also funny to hear Tom Waits sing after only ever having seen him in movies.
A wild, challenging, diverse, weird, and confrontational album, that’s also equal parts tender, heartwarming, and beautiful. This is the full Waits experience in one legendary album. The carnival barking, the drunken spoke word, the gorgeous piano ballads, catchy rockers, and everything in between. You’re in on Waits, or totally out, and I respect both paths. But the weird needs to be celebrated in this beige world, and I’m completely in.
The album may start with Singapore, but its heart is a rain and whiskey-soaked New York as it travels through its nineteen tracks. And while that might be five to twelve too many songs for non-fans (Tom can be divisive), if you've got any inclination towards any of Tom Waits' incarnations, Rain Dogs has you covered — from herky-jerky trashcan rhythms and off-kilter polkas, tangos, and shanties, to avant-pop, blues, and ballads. All with a raspy voice that doesn't throw anchor in any port — only those rife with adventure and trouble to be had.
I feel like I gravitate toward later Tom Waits, where his songs are all mistuned pianos, creaking organs and wheezing accordion. But, I feel like this is a good bridge between those albums and his earlier dive-bar balladier stuff. So, in that regard, this may be his best album.
No context for this one and I am certainly wowed. What an interesting... Thing?
The best album ever!!!
Jeden z jeho najlepších albumov. Tento mám rád.
Peautiful
I adored Tom Waits and I have heard this a time or two- always a pleasurable revisit!
todo lo bueno del swordfishtrombones + las mejores baladitas springsteenianas de alguien que no es springsteen. en los últimos años han pasado tantas veces en universal el cover chafa de rod stewart de downtown train que me saqué de pedo con lo buena que es la original al oirla de nuevo. el disco con el que conocí a tom waits y me hice fan inmediata. anywhere i lay my head es uno de los mejores tracks finales que existen; alguna vez pensé que si me moría querría que la pusieran en mi funeral
4.5
I genuinely think this is one of the greatest records of all time. No one does anything like this.
Lyrics that are absolutely bananas. A voice like someone gargling gravel. And I loved it.
I don't care if you don't like the type of music. This is absolutely genius based on the fact that there was nothing like it when it first came out and it's still very groundbreaking. Not as abrasive as Swordfishtrombones but it's pretty much a mix of early jazz and blues, proto-american music from the 1910s, Screamin' Jay Hawkins impersonation and played by a band of circus freak with a homeless barfly with a whiskey soaked voice as the crooner. This is pure beauty. Of the ugly kind.
Super awesome! I love Tom Waits and wish I were a rain dog too, but I always feel like he’d think I’m a nerd and wouldn’t like me when I listen, so I never do.
Classic, sheer variety and quality of the record is amazing. Favorite track: downtown train other picks: clap hands, gun street girl, time, hang down your head
Cookie Monster has been drinking again...
I cling to this record like Linus does to his blanket. Waits keeps you warm.
Great album. My favorite track are Time, Downtown Train, Rain Dogs, Clap Hands, Hang Down Your Head, Blind Love, Gun Street Girl.
Love the variety and lyricism on this. 4.5/5.0: Excellent
A lot of variety, every song sounds different. There were a few that weren't as great but none of them are long so it doesn't really drag the album down.
Had no idea what to expect, and I absolutely loved it. So unique and brooding.
If you read about Tom Waits, you'll find that writers always struggle to define his genre. Is it jazz, or blues, or banging on trash cans? Is it theater or cabaret or something dredged up from a swamp around New Orleans? Is it a fusion of all these? He's a hard one to define, and I've always appreciated that about him. My favorite album is not on the 1001 list and that's Swordfishtrombones which preceded Rain Dogs, and I recommend living in that one for a while. Both are 5/5 for me.
This is a brilliant album that is an experience. I love Swordfish Trombone, but to me this album is less about tracks and individual songs and more about an audio narrative. I love the way this album builds sonically from street sounds and atmosphere into a coherent expression of city life (NYC). Downtown Train, while clearly the most accessible and commercial track on the album emerges almost as a resolution to the building musical soundscape. So enjoyable.
Ridiculously stacked album. All bangers. Waits really paints a perfect picture, and he doesn't even need lyrics to do that either. The instrumental itself is enough to give my brain and setting and it's characters. His stuff works on such a subconcious level I don't even try thinking what the song looks like, I just see it playing in my head. Insanely talented, I don't think he's ever made a bad album. Or even any below "great"
Noen låter minner meg for mye om Springsteen, men heldigvis er 95% piratmusikk!
I LOVE everything about this album except his voice for some reason. It's really weird because I love Cohen and Dylan and all of the other bad singer, but his voice irritates me. Everything else is still so perfect it gets a 5
My favorite Waits album on this list, and possibly my favorite of his full stop (I'm also partial to Mule Variations). I don't think anyone paints vivid character-and-place portraits with their lyrics and music like Waits. His music is the best I've come across at invoking the feelings of both longing/regret as well as the beauty of life's little details. Just a master of his craft.
I'll search for comprehensive information about this classic album to ensure an accurate and well-rounded review. **Rain Dogs** (Island Records, 1985) stands as the crowning achievement of Tom Waits’s “Island Trilogy”—the alchemical middle ground between the skeletal experimentation of *Swordfishtrombones* (1983) and the theatrical excess of *Franks Wild Years* (1987). Recorded at RCA Studios in New York City and co-produced with his wife Kathleen Brennan, the album marks the moment Waits fully abandoned his beat-poet-barfly persona of the 1970s for something far more fractured and enduring: a junkyard orchestra of found sounds, Weimar cabaret, and gutter-blues poetry that redefined what American songwriting could sound like in the Reagan era. --- ### **Production & Musical Architecture** The sonic signature of *Rain Dogs* is immediately confrontational. Waits and Brennan assembled a ragtag ensemble—featuring guitarist **Marc Ribot** (in his first collaboration with Waits), drummer Stephen Hodges, bassist Larry Taylor, and a surprising cameo by **Keith Richards** on three tracks—to create what critic Robert Palmer described as “rhythmically irresistible, uniquely powerful” textural chaos . The production rejects 1980s gloss entirely. Instead, Waits pursues what guitarist Ribot called “orchestra accuracy with back-alley blues” —a tension between precision and entropy achieved through: - **Unconventional percussion:** Marimbas, brake drums, doorbells, and a massive 32-inch bass drum create rhythms that clatter rather than swing - **Brechtian instrumentation:** Accordions, muted brass, and pump organs evoke Weimar-era cabaret, filtered through Captain Beefheart’s angular experimentalism - **“Wrong” notes as aesthetic:** Ribot’s guitar playing deliberately avoids blues clichés, favoring drunken, off-kilter lines that mirror the instability of the lyrics The result is a “junkyard orchestra” aesthetic—organic, raw, and deliberately anti-professional. It sounds like it was recorded in a basement near the East River at 3 a.m., which, spiritually, it was. --- ### **Lyrical Content: Cinema of the Dispossessed** If the music creates the alleyways, Waits’s lyrics populate them with ghosts. Working from his recent relocation to New York City, Waits adopts a cinematic, panoramic approach to character studies that rivals Charles Bukowski and Damon Runyon . **The opening triptych** establishes the rules immediately: - **“Singapore”** drops us onto a diseased whaling ship with surreal imagery (“While making feet for children’s shoes”) that signals this won’t be linear storytelling - **“Clap Hands”** delivers the album’s manifesto in its marimba-driven creep: *“Steam, steam, a hundred bad dreams / Goin’ up to Harlem with a pistol in his jeans”* - **“Cemetery Polka”** transforms family reunion gossip into a grotesque polka, name-checking “Uncle Vernon” and “Auntie Maime” with dark affection Waits’s word-choice operates like physical texture. In **“9th & Hennepin”** he sketches a diner counter where the waitress has a “tattooed tear / One for every year he’s away,” while outside, “the wind is making speeches / And the rain sounds like a round of applause” . These aren’t metaphors chosen for elegance; they’re weathered, specific, and bruised. The ballads provide necessary oxygen amid the clatter. **“Time”** contains perhaps Waits’s most devastating couplet: *“The things you can’t remember tell the things you can’t forget / That history puts a saint in every dream”* . Meanwhile, **“Downtown Train”**—later a hit for Rod Stewart—functions as the album’s one concession to pop structure, though Waits’s original remains ragged, desperate, and unmistakably his . --- ### **Themes: Lost Scents and Urban Decay** The title **“Rain Dogs”** refers to dogs lost in a storm who cannot find their way home because the rain has washed away their scent. This becomes the central metaphor for the entire record: displacement, loss of bearings, and the impossibility of return . The album’s New York is not the gentrifying city of Wall Street excess, but a **pre-gentrification underworld** of card sharps, immigrants, and broken romantics. Tracks like “Union Square” and “Gun Street Girl” map a geography of marginalization, while **“Blind Love”** (*“You’re east of East St. Louis and the wind is making speeches”*) posits geography as emotional state . There’s a persistent **tension between romance and grit**. Waits finds beauty in rust—finding the “Roosevelt dime” shining in the gutter, celebrating the “crumbling beauty” with tattooed tears. It’s an album about resilience rather than redemption; the characters endure, they don’t transcend. As the closing track **“Anywhere I Lay My Head”** declares over a Dixieland funeral march: *“I learned to be alone”* . --- ### **Influence & Cultural Legacy** Few albums have so thoroughly redrawn the map for alternative music. **Thom Yorke** of Radiohead cites *Rain Dogs* as a formative influence, praising its cinematic quality where “every track was a short movie set to music” . **Nick Cave** drew from its narrative well for his own character-driven songwriting, while hip-hop producers like **DJ Shadow** sampled its percussive textures . The album’s reach extends into the mainstream through **“Downtown Train,”** which Rod Stewart took to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1989, providing Waits with financial stability while ironically sanitizing the song’s desperation . Its influence on film is equally profound—the track **“Jockey Full of Bourbon”** features prominently in Jim Jarmusch’s *Down by Law* (1986), starring Waits himself, cementing the album’s visual aesthetic in cinema . Critically, the album has achieved canonical status: - **Pitchfork:** 10/10 (2025 reappraisal), ranked #8 best album of the 1980s - **Rolling Stone:** #357 on the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020) - **NME:** #105 on their 500 Greatest Albums list --- ### **Pros & Cons** #### **Pros** - **Unprecedented sonic innovation:** The “junkyard orchestra” approach created a template for experimental Americana that remains unmatched in its cohesion despite its chaos . - **Peak lyrical achievement:** Waits’s image-making here is at its most precise and devastating; every line feels carved rather than written . - **Emotional range:** The ability to move from the abrasive clatter of “Big Black Mariah” to the tender bruise of “Time” demonstrates rare artistic versatility . - **Ensemble chemistry:** The interplay between Ribot’s guitar, Richards’s loose rhythmic sense, and Waits’s percussive direction creates a band sound that feels telepathic . - **Timeless production:** Unlike many 1980s records, the deliberate rawness avoids dated synthesizers or drum machines, sounding as alien and fresh today as in 1985 . #### **Cons** - **Deliberately abrasive aesthetic:** The clanging percussion, off-key brass, and “wrong-note” guitar work can be actively unpleasant on first listen—or for listeners seeking melodic comfort . - **Vocals as acquired taste:** Waits’s gravel-throated growl, fully committed to character work, alienates listeners who find it theatrical to the point of parody . - **Inconsistent pacing:** With 19 tracks and nearly an hour of music, the album’s constant tonal shifts—from polka to tango to blues—can feel disjointed or exhausting rather than dynamic . - **Obscurity for obscurity’s sake:** Some critics argue that tracks like “Midtown” (an instrumental) or “Bride of Rain Dog” prioritize atmosphere over substance, suggesting Waits’s commitment to weirdness occasionally overrides editorial discipline . - **Accessibility issues:** For fans of Waits’s earlier, jazz-tinged piano ballads (*Closing Time*, *Blue Valentine*), this represents a bridge too far into experimentalism . --- ### **Conclusion** *Rain Dogs* is not an album that meets you halfway. It demands that you descend into its New York City of rain-slicked streets, broken accordions, and busted narrators. Yet for those willing to make the trip, it offers one of the most complete artistic visions in popular music—a world where beauty and ugliness are not opposites but siblings, where every clang and whisper serves the architecture of the song. Forty years after its release, it remains the definitive Tom Waits statement: the moment when the “poet of America’s non-nine-to-fivers” (as Robert Christgau described him) found the precise sonic vocabulary to match his literary ambitions . It is, as *Pitchfork* noted in its perfect-score retrospective, “a romantic and carnivalesque masterpiece” that captures the sound of civilization’s rust eating away at the American dream—beautiful, broken, and ringing like a bell you can’t unring .
Like 'Nighthawks at the Diner' this successfully builds a dark Lynchian world of ne'er-do-wells and outsiders - Puerto Ricans with wooden legs, one-armed dwarves, and jockeys full of bourbon. The lyrics are typically fantastic - so Uncle Vernon is "as independent as a hog on ice" and Uncle Bill has a tumour "as big as an egg". I'm not sure it reaches the mind-blowing heights of his 1975 masterpiece, but nevertheless it's an engrossing and exceptional treat.
I didn't realise I needed an album in my life that sits at the intersection of New Orleans Blues, sea shanties, noir vibes and gritty, boozy folk music but I absolutely did.
It’s like listening to someone with clay feet run.
gritty, weird, theatrical, and eclectic, rich with imagery of urban life, grotesques, and broken beauty, blending cabaret, jazz, rock, and experimental sounds
Whadda beauddie!
Album 8 Top 3 favorites off the album: Tango Till They're Sore, Time, Clap Hands My first thought was, "bizarre," and then I listened to the whole album and really, really enjoyed it. It *is* bizarre. Waits doesn't spoon feed you meaning; I had to think about this one. Still thinking about it, really. Sonically and texturally, this album is unlike anything I have ever listened to. There's a gritty feeling to the whole thing, but often something lighter in sound floating over top. Another short one for today, but only because this is one I have to revisit when I'm not at work. There's a lot going on, and I'm intrigued.
This is my last Waits album on the list and it’s the one where it finally clicks for me. I liked Bone Machine as well but this feels like his quintessential work. He takes you to all the dirty corners of America unlike any other artist I can think of. You never know what avenue he’s going down next. It’s always strange yet familiar. Rating: 4.8
A riotous ride, roughly how I imagine the inside of an empty whisky bottle might sound.
Bluesy carnival music heard in a bar at 3am. I love the dark humour in the lyrics, and the tribal percussion under the swaggering guitar.
It's almost like Tom Waits started pretending to be a half crazed homeless person so people would leave him alone on mass transit and he is now stuck and cannot change back. That or this is just mad genius coming through, his voice is so noticeable that I can hear a Tom Waits song and know it's him because of how he sings.
really fun, really quirky album. obviously i know that tom waits gets even more off-kilter and quirky on subsequent albums, but this one threads a nice line between the craziness and the more conventional, while still being pretty listenable and accessible. this album does make me out to be a hypocrite, with the amount of times on here that i have complained about demented circus music, which this definitely is. but for some reason, it really works for me with tom waits. the sleazy, smoke filled cabaret vibe he likes to give off really really works well for him and his voice and it just makes more sense for me here.
What a joy to finally be made to listen to a full Tom Waits album. It was more than the sum of it's parts for sure.
Fantastic
Album 986 of 1089 Rain Dogs - Tom Waits (1985) Rating : 5 / 5 As someone who already counts Waits as a favorite, I came into this one fully familiar - and still walked away impressed all over again. Rain Dogs sits right in that sweet spot of his career where the reinvented, rough-edged, junkyard-poet version of Waits is firing on all cylinders. This is the era where he really became Tom Waits, and it shows. What I love about this album is the sheer variety. He bounces between styles and moods without ever losing the thread of who he is. Every track has its own personality, its own little world, and somehow he makes all those worlds fit together. Whether he’s leaning into a crooked carnival rhythm, a battered blues shuffle, or one of his aching ballads, the songwriting is top-tier throughout. And of course, there’s “Downtown Train,” which went on to be covered by Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, Patty Smyth, and probably half the bar bands in America. But hearing it here - in its original, slightly ragged, honest form — reminds you why Waits is in a different league. He just writes differently. I originally had this marked at 4.5/5, but the more I thought about it, the more it didn’t feel right. This album is simply too good - too creative, too original, too Waits - not to give it the full 5. One of his defining works from one of his most compelling eras.
Another classic from Mr Waits
yeeeeass
> The Beatles
First song I listened to was a 0/10, but the second one, "Clap Hands", was amazing. Also highly recommend "Cemetery Polka." I am still currently listening to songs from this album as I type this so overall the album was absolutely amazing.
This kinda blew my mind. I hate the album cover so I thought I was in for a rough listen, which was almost confirmed by my first listen of the first song. However, the longer I listened, the more I fell in love with this album and sound altogether. Tom Waits is such a visceral, guttural voice and lyricist, rife with age, smoke, mysticality, adventure, and so much more. It's bold to put something out there so 'out there' that is completely unique from everything else. This album is weird and bizarre but infectious. Combining so many different sounds and instruments. Makes me want to further my Tom Waits journey.
Waits has always essentially been a storyteller, but on Rain Dogs, along w/ Swordfishtrombones, he becomes some sort of medium for the (un)reality of an America he ceaselessly aims to depict. Theatrics certainly define a major element of this masterpiece, but so does a prolific directness and a frightful realism, as if you were to meld Lewis Carroll w/ Theodore Dreiser. Lyrically, he has the ability few others have to be utterly memorable and yet invariably exciting: 'We can always find a millionaire to shovel all the coal'; 'I'll tell you all my secrets, but I lie about my past.' I love that most tracks do not exceed the three minute mark, w/ only two longer than four, and that its initial strangeness gives way to a gentleness and grooving perspective.
I love everything about this album, and it really is a record everyone should hear. Solid five stars!
I live pretty much everything about this beautifully weird album. Favorite track: Time
I have a deep love for this album. It was probably the 50th time i have listened to it and enjoyed every second of it
Top notch artistic creativity. Music, as a concept, torn down and rebuilt. More barbwire than velvet. He totally changed the way i listened to music when I first heard him. Tom will always be my number one.
The best
I was apprehensive about this due to it's reputation as a 'difficult' listen. Wonderfully surprised to learn that it's actually an absolute blast. No idea why anyone wouldn't like this. Remarkable that it's from 1985 - it's the least 80s sounding album ever, and could have been made at any point during my lifetime. A new favourite...
(5) Love this album. Tom sings calliope while Sad hands strum on harpsichords, and a sax screams into the city street, William Burroughsesque poetry is read like an old man reading the newspaper on the subway.
hell yeah
I only knew tom trauberts blues by Tom waits. It was always an interesting song with a confrontational voice. But this record, I was not prepared. It feels crazy but in an awesome way. I was never bored during listening. It doesn't become stale, toms voice adds complexion and the instrumentation is crazy in a good way. Interested to see if there is more Tom waits on this list.
Liczba i rozpiętość skojarzeń, które miałem słuchając tego albumu są niesamowite. Jestem przekonany, że wszystkie wspomniane utwory inspirowały się Waitsem. "Cemetery Polka" - "This Is Halloween" z "Nightmare Before Christmas" "Midtown" - Muzyka z "Cowboy Bebop", zwłaszcza "Tank!" i "Bad Dog, No Biscuits" "9th & Hennepin" - kino noir "Gun Street Girl" - Red Dead Redemption 2 W niektórych momentach słyszałem manierę śpiewu, która kojarzyła mi się z Jamesem Hettfieldem z Metallici (wspominał, że Waits był dla niego inspiracją). Waits czerpie z tak szerokich źródeł, że w jednym albumie zawiera niemal całą kulturę amerykańską, zwłaszcza tę z nizin i peryferii - New Orlean brass, blues ("Blind Love"), country (znowu "Blind Love"), rock&roll ("Union Square"), szanty ("Singapore" to perełka). Niesamowita rozpiętość inspiracji i wpływów, a jednocześnie teksty oraz niepowtarzalny głos i maniera śpiewania Waitsa spajają to w fantastycznie konsekwentną i jednolitą całość. Americana at its finest. Umiejętności narracyjne i poetyckie Waitsa są nie do przecenienia. Jeśli Bob Dylan dostał Nobla z literatury, to Waits też powinien (na marginesie momentami miałem skojarzenia z prozą Hemingwaya, kiedy słuchałem tego albumu). Inną cechą, która mnie urzekła, to barowość tego krążka. Słuchając połowy tych utworów widzę zadymione, ciemne wnętrze brudnego baru z rozstrojonym pianinem wciśniętym w kąt. Myślę, że można by napisać rozprawę doktorską na temat tego krążka. Jestem pod olbrzymim wrażeniem. Nie to, żebym nie słuchał wcześniej Waitsa, ale kojarzyłem głównie "Little Drop of Poison" (thanks, Shrek - swoją drogą, wnętrze tej knajpy z filmu to dokładnie to, o czym pisałem dwa akapity temu) i "Clap Hands". Waits stworzył własny gatunek muzyczny, jego styl jest tak oryginalny i niepowtarzalny, że stanowi oddzielną kategorię sam w sobie. Przeglądałem recenzje innych i są to niemalże same piątki i jedynki. Z dużą przewagą piątek. Co uważam za jeden z wielu wyznaczników sukcesu i artystycznej wartości tego, co zrobił.
Let Tom Waits take you on this weird, emotional and beautiful adventure. You'll laugh, cry and gasp.
Really unique. Wasn’t a fan of all the songs, but some were really great
This is the first Tom Waits album I really listened to, and it's one of his very best.
My second favourite Tom Waits album, got a bit of everything on here, great lyrics and melodies. Love, love, love
Out of everything I’ve heard so far from Tom Waits, this is one of my favorite albums. The album sits solidly on a blues foundation but is also experimental, quirky, and features playful instrumentation. It’s produced in a raw, stripped-down, and gritty way, and when you add Tom Waits’ gravelly voice on top of that, it gives the album a lot of texture. I don’t think this is an album for everyone, but for those who can appreciate it, you’ll hold on tight to this one. It will definitely be a good album to revisit in the future.
Listening to Rain Dogs makes me profoundly happy. The world would be such a better place if we’d all just take some time to love the wonderful carnival of Tom Waits’ mind for awhile.
Good. Pirate vibes but definitely a good listen all the way through
We’re all as mad as hatters here. . . Probably my favorite Tom record. Every song is great.
My personal favourite Tom Waits album. Have thrashed and will continue to thrash into old age
Dark and avant-garde, almost a sea shanty vibe. It’s easy to picture a dark wet street in a big city with people of the night acting out their lives. Definitely odd, but fascinating at the same time.
i throw out the word Worldbuilding every now and then to describe particularly aesthetically cohesive or space-carving music but it scarcely feels less theoretical than on this record, with which even a cursory brush feels like ur wandering up and down a single street in the world's smallest, seediest port town. instruments weave in and out of the tracklist like reoccurring characters, like ah marimba always a pleasure to run into you, oh wow its banjo its been forever since i last saw you. to say nothing of tom's many voices (he always sounds like tom waits ofc but his versatility is underrated)! ive previously found the length of this a bit much but it felt perfect this time...long enough for sprawl, but short enough to not require the biggest mental commitment in the world. many of my fave pieces of art are simply Places You Can Go. time and downtown train always melt my heart
8,47
Love em or hate em, this is probably his best album and was my initiation into his strange world. A bit scattered, but this covers a massive swath of his entire career.
It's Tom Waits. Always a 5 in my book. Can I get a 6? This is an interesting album with Keith Richards joining on a few of the tracks.
Edna Million in a drop dead suit, Dutch pink on the downtown train
I already knew I loved this album. Weird and complicated, a bit cabaret, a bit macabre, but not in an embarrassingly shlocky "Amanda Palmer" kind of way. And what a voice. A lot of people try to do this kind of thing, but very few do it well.
Tom Waits isn’t for everyone, but he is for me. The eccentric instrumentation, voice that perfectly matches the characters in his songs, the emotions it pulls from deep in the cockles of my heart. I don’t know, maybe something like that. But man do I love a Tom Waits album.
This is one of the best albums I've ever heard in my life. I'm a fan of Waits, but this is the first time I've listened to this album in its entirety. It's chaotic in terms of genre. It describes the lives of strange characters and paints raw and dirty picrures of NYC lost souls. Just incredible. 5/5
When Tom Waits is at his best, listening to an album is more like watching a film — and I don't mean to suggest this sounds like a soundtrack. I mean the production and arrangements and performances and lyrics paint such vivid pictures and are so immersive, it goes beyond a mere listening experience. This is Waits at his best. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this.
Due to traveling, i didn't have time to listen to this one today, but this is my favorite Tom Waits album, so I can go ahead and confidently give it 5 stars. He gets everything right on this one.
RAIN DOGSSSS. absolutely impeccable. a 9 but closer to a 10...
Classic Tom Waits. Not my top favourite but him but I don’t think those are in the project (Blue Valentine and Frank’s Wild Years) and this is close enough.
I mean you know how I feel about Tom Waits. And this has the Cemetery Polka!
This album is a fever dream. I love it! The title track was standout for me, although I also loved Singapore and Clap Hands.
This is such cool Album!
Tom Waits can be overrated at times but this is a genius album
I actually really like this album - what a fun, funky, weird, creepy vibe.
Perfect
I started off thinking this was all vaguely ridiculous but by about half way through I was thinking 'I'm a Rain Dog too'. Always great to hear something that you've written off for years without ever really giving it a try and be pleasantly surprised. Lesson learned not to prejudge based on what you think something is rather than what it actually is. I have a lot of Tom Waits to catch up on.
As my dad says, there are some Tom Waits tracks that just sound like he's reciting poetry while banging pots in the background. This, however, is everything that makes him great - the lyrics are evocative and create characters and stories that are so intriguing. The guitar playing is great and adds to the atmosphere and storytelling without being overly flashy. Really great album
Not much more to say about the twisted and conflicted demon that is Tom Waits. Back-alley Shakespeare takes us on a journey to the darkest depths of NYC nightlife and sleaze, to the score of proficient worldly influence, multigenre demonstrations and really zany instrument choices. Rain Dogs is peak Tom Waits, not all his albums give off this vibe. But his work on this one remains iconic and prolific.
Incredibly creative and evocative.
Wow wow wow wow wow. Get on board and go for a ride!
Surrealist art has always been controversial. When it comes to something as universal as music, even more so. Regardless, said weirdness is what makes me love Rain Dogs. It is a bizarre piece of surrealist poetry, where Tom shows us around a fascinating and strange world, alongside some of the most unique instrumentation of any album I've ever heard. It's lyrics are instantly memorable, his voice perfectly fitting, it's melodies hilarious and fun. An absolute masterpiece.
Masterpiece.
Just went on a deep dive of Tom Waits. He’s still alive?? Weird guy who’s done all sorts and I’m here for it
Tom Waits touches on every genre and influence but simultaneously creates a genre all his own. His voice, while always touched by that gravel and grit ranges from raucous to tender and everything in between. Highlights for me are Clap Hands, Big Black Mariah, Time, Rain Dogs, and Hang Down Your Head.
Waits is the main and this is among his finest!
Someone has a hard on for Tom Waits. There's too many of his albums on this list. Same thing with David Bowie, same thing with Dylan, same thing with Pearl Jam, etc. Not everyone has a stiffie for Tom Waits, and when there are too many albums on the list for being good, then none of them are good. The thought is 'uhh, not another Leonard Cohen album...' After the third shitty Tom Waits album, nobody has any patience for Tom Waits (pun intended). But this is the outlier, this is the album that everyone should listen to. Look, 1001, you can afford to retool, to be a little selective. There's plenty of other worthy music that should be on this list and five Tom Waits album is too many. Just, please keep this one.
This is the 123rd album I’m rating. Adding to my Playlist - Singapore, Clap Hands, Cemetery Polka, Jockey Full of Bourbon, Tango till they're Sore, Big Black Mariah, Diamonds & Gold, Hang Down Your Head, Time, Rain Dogs, Midtown, Gun Street Girl, Union Square, Blind Love, Walking Spanish, Downtown Train, and Anywhere I Lay my Head. Not Adding to my Playlist - 9th & Hennepin. All in all I liked 18/19 songs. Tom Waits is great except for the spoken word parts because that is just awful.
Love this, good ol’ Tom Waits. Vaudeville, carnivalesque, weird and wonderful. Voice like a leather belt soaked in rye whisky for a year then thrown onto a gravel road and run over by a line of big rig trucks. This is great, with some really great songs.
This was perfect for this rainy may day. 5
I have always loved this album
This is what I’m doing this project for. Absolutely completely different, utterly unique, rich, dirty, a whole visual world you can picture created through music and sound. Reminds me of Nick Cave. Absolutely fantastic.
Rain Dogs might be as near to accessible as Tom Waits gets, which is to say, not very. It sits in the middle of an acclaimed trilogy, between swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years. We’re in the sleazy underbelly again, Waits’ natural home, rubbing shoulders with the human flotsam in a thousand corners of New York. Musically he makes raids on many genres mangled them all nearly beyond recognition. The opener Singapore is a kind of demented sea shanty, complete with wind and rain atmospherics on the outro. Time is a stripped back early hours highlight. Extra credit must be given for the line, “All the donuts have names that sound like prostitutes,” on the spoken 9th and Hennepin. Downtown Train is a great track though in many ways it’s the most conventional in the album; it could almost be a Springsteen song. This is core Waits. Here’s the long form lyrics listing oddly named characters doing incomprehensible and often unspeakable things with or to each other under the influence of oceans of bourbon. You won’t come away whistling tunes, though you might begin to feel that you’ve led a rather sheltered life. “I’ve seen it all”, he intones, and listening to this album it’s hard to doubt it. Fun fact: this album features Keith Richards on several tracks, most audibly on the folk tinged Blind Love, my favourite track in the album. Chris Spedding guests on the opener.
So much Tom Waits. First impression on this one is Tom Waits is compiling audio into an album because he wants to. There doesn't seem to be any chasing a buck or algorithm. This one is an audio experience, like some form of gutter blues grime opera. I gave this around 3 listens. I don't have any complaints, and enjoyed the ride each song took me on.
let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair!
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy. I f****** love, Tom waits.
Bizarre, mesmerizing, enthralling
fucking weirdo album for weirdos, fucking little freak album; 5 stars
Sheer perfection. It's an experience listening to this. The songs, the sound, the band all come together to make an outstanding album of songs that tell stories. I can understand how some folk got tired of the jazzy schtick of the later Warners albums (I know that I did). This was the start of something new, what a transformation. Everyone should own a copy.
This completely rocks. Surprisingly so. The horns are great, many of the songs are great. “Clap Hands”, “Midtown” and “Gun Street Girl” “Downtown Train” are highlights. Loved it.
What a classic. This is my early 20s sitting in a smoky room with friends, pretending to be intellectuals and not being like "all the other posers". Good times.
Rain Dogs is certainly an excellent album. I always liked Tom Waits' style of music and how unique it is and this album does a really good job in capturing that style. It also just does every aspect that you would ever want in an album right. There are plenty of different styles of music here which all sound great, Tom's vocals which all are varied and gave the songs their intended feel and then some, the lyrics in every song are interesting and the production here was surprisingly very good, even better than Bone Machine even though that album came out 7 years later. I don't think i can think of a single problem that this album has so it gets full marks from me. Best Song: Gun Street Girl Worst Song: Time
Dope.
Amazing.
Perfection, there’s nothing in the world that sounds like this
Tror det är fjärde plattan jag får med Tom Waits nu och det här är ju lätt hans bästa. Känns som man är på ett nöjesfält på 1930-talet och passar på att besöka en freakshow.
Love the diversity in the record 19 tracks that flies by
Very good storytelling from Mr Waits
Best Song: Jockey Full Of Bourbon. No one else sounds like this. To me, this sounds like good ideas, bad intentions. I love the character of this song. Very close second to "Tango Till They're Sore". Worst Song: 9th & Hennepin. This kind of spoken word kind of interrupts the flow of the album. I think this could have been a good closer for the album, but it distracts right in the middle. Overall: Probably my favourite Tom Waits album. Everything about this album is brilliant. The way it alternates between these moments of carnivalesque silliness to indulgent melancholy, all dripping with Waits's unique mix of booze and blues. The way that the lyrics are as just idiosyncratic and characterful as his melodies. And especially the way he dips into atonal, sometimes almost amusical choices in such a way that he somehow makes even those moments of ugliness feel beautiful. Fantastic.
I've quite enjoyed listening to this. Not listened to much TW in the past but find this really accessible. I'm quite pleased with some of the albums that have been thrown up as it has expanded my listening range. In particular I like the guitar playing of Marc Ribot on jocky full of bourbon. Favourites include Clap Hands, hang down your head and time.
Spooky scary skeletons, send shivers down my spine.
I kinda loved this one. Very strange in a good way Will I listen to again: 100%
absolutely brilliant.
The only thing I knew about Tom Waits was that people said he had a weird voice. I was expecting something like Bob Dylan, but was very surprised from the first track. This album took a second listen for me to really get it. The imagery he creates with each song is really amazing. It’s like each song is a scene from a movie. The guitar on the album is really great too.
This sounds like nothing else that came out in the '80s. None of the production gimmicks of the day, just some damn good musicians (including Keith Richards) and Waits' unique voice. It sounds both like it could have come out at any time, and doesn't really fit into any time period. It's incredible. I got Waits' Bone Machine as album #8 on here, over a year and a half ago. I didn't really like it very much at all. His voice is deep and a bit aggressive, and that album has a bit of dark undertones. It very quickly became clear that this one is different. His voice still isn't my favorite ever, but the deep raspy thing works so well here, whether on the more approachable pop-ish songs, or the ballads, or the more experimental stuff. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what I like about this, but I got that excited feeling like I get sometimes when listening to new things that feel different. It's raw and emotional and just hauntingly beautiful. I don't typically like to copy/paste quotes here, but the Wikipedia page has a Thom Yorke quote that I like: "falling asleep listening to it on my Walkman, only to wake up in the morning with it still on autorepeat in my head. Every track was a short movie set in a mysterious, circus-like down-at-heel America that I had almost no understanding of, with different characters both in the lyrics and the instruments, an entire universe revealed to me for a few minutes only to drop me at the other end of the block – no idea how I’d got there. Every lyric was an effortless rhyme you could only dream of ever writing. Falling off the tongue so beautifully, but never giving easily, keeping half the story to itself. Waits was playing a character with a darkness and humour that felt far more genuine than anything trying to be, I dunno, genuine in 1985... This record has never got tired for me, though I have played it over and over throughout my life, as did my kids growing up." I can't wait to listen again. I probably owe Bone Machine a relisten too now. Favorite song: Downtown Train Other: Singapore, Clap Hands, Cemetery Polka, Jockey Full Of Bourbon, Tango Till They're Sore, Diamonds And Gold, Hang Down Your Head, Time, Rain Dogs, Gun Street Girl, Union Square, Blind Love, Walking Spanish, Anywhere I Lay My Head 1/26/25
What a great album! Someone wrote that this was like Halloween music. I agree with that statement, but where we differ is that I view it as a good thing. There are several songs on here that would be right at home on the soundtrack for Nightmare Before Christmas. So many new favorites: Singapore, Clap Hands, Cemetery Polka, Jockey Full of Bourbon, Gun Street Girl
A Masterpiece! The best Tom's album. Vocal and music are perfect! Every track is amazing, It is one of my favorite albums.
I need to listen to this 60 more times to get a full grasp of it, but it’s long been my favorite of Waits’. Nothing much like it.
I really wasn't expecting to get this album as quickly as I did. Like, this isn't my first encounter with Tom Waits, to be clear. This is, as it happens, the second time I'm talking about an artist I first heard through the SHREK 2 soundtrack, after David Bowie. "Little Drop Of Poison" was one of my favorites, 'coz the arrangement was stranger than anything else on there and Tom Waits just had this uniquely gravelly voice, like nothing I'd ever heard before (it'd be a few years before I'd hear Captain Beefheart). It was also one of the two "piano bar" songs on the album, along with "People Ain't No Good" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds — and somehow, I always thought this album would be more like that. I'unno, the album cover just always gave me the vibe that it'd be really "sad piano ballad-y," and potentially a little boring as a result if I wasn't in the mood for that sorta thing. Like, this album **did** come out 20 years before SHREK 2; I thought maybe that's just Tom Waits was doing way back then. Nope. Unsurprisingly, I was wrong. Within the first couple seconds of the opening track, I got the sound of this album immediately — one half of its sound, at least. This is clearly the kinda shit that inspired bands like That Handsome Devil and Primus, with these unconventional arrangements and lyrics about strange, odd people. I was especially reminded of That Handsome Devil with these vocals. And, like, goodness, if I thought Waits had unique vocals before, I swear, there are so many times where it sounds less like he's singing, or even yelling, and more like he's just... **Vomiting** the words. Some kinda Bruce Springsteen who went way too hard on the liquor and cigarettes. It's kind of amazing, honestly. These are the kind of songs where I can tell why someone wouldn't like this album; it might just sound strange for the sake of it. But believe me, once you've got an ear attuned to it; if you've heard as much SAILING THE SEAS OF CHEESE and A CITY DRESSED IN DYNAMITE as i have, it's great stuff. And that's half the album, probably actually a majority of it. As for the rest, it turns out there is actually a small selection of songs that play into that "sad piano ballad" thing I was somehow expecting from this album. I wanna highlight "Hang Your Head Down" and "Blind Love" specifically, where I was honestly taken a little off-guard by the emotion he was able to wring out of his vocal style. And actually managing to pull off those vocal melodies — honestly, they maybe hafta be my favorite moments on the album. What an album it is, goodness. Not even the fact that it approaches an hour is really an issue to me. It breezes by, and I'm loving it the entire time. It's another hard 5 from me — my eighth in a row now! Just outstanding music, my goodness. So that's another win for the "SHREK 2 soundtrack seal of approval," I guess. Which, I'm already aware it doesn't have a 100% success rate — lookin' at you, Dashboard Confessional — but dang if it ain't have a good track record so far.
Some of these tracks just have a quality to them that remind me of a group like The Residents, which does put it up a notch in my alley. 4.5 bumped up to 5.
So, so good. One of his best
I don't think anything this man touches Will ever be below 5 stars from me. It's so unique and somehow sounds ancient and brand new, despite being 40 years old.
Magnificent
Nogle af hans bedste numre på den her, men det der imponerer mig ved Tom Waits er, hvor godt albums hænger sammen
Ved ikke hvilket univers Tom Waits lever i, men fuck det her er en fed plade. Det her projekt gør mig til en større Tom Waits fan.
I really had to chew on this album. I listened to this years ago and didn't think too much of it. Now I think I'm beginning to understand the full picture. Most songs on it are really phenomenal, it's really just the couple of NOLA style saloon jams that are almost a bit of a caricature that detract from the whole. That being said, my impression of Rain Dogs only continues to improve with time, and I'm really glad I can appreciate it now. 4.5/5 -> 5/5
Blind album, know the artist from other albums on the project. I get it. I totally get it. Im hooked so hard on this album. I love the wacky songs, I love the Heartland tracks, I love the instrumentation, I love the jumpy staccato that isn't too aggressive or overstayed, its the perfect middle ground, complimenting the legato parts and overpaying to make something you dont hear every day but brings emotion from the soul. The vocals fit so many styles, and the album being a jumbled mess of those styles isn't jarring. 1 bit where 1 song is rock/Heartland, and the previous being wacky percussive blues, it doesn't pull you away, it hooks you in! It sucks you in to tune in actively but still feels laid back. If this is the middle of 3, I cannot wait to hear the other 2.
Tom Waits really broke through for me on this listen. His halting, strange melodic style has an appealing intimacy. It wasn't always my cup of tea, but this album has to be the pinnacle of his work
A stone-cold masterpiece. Musically interesting, cinematic in scope, lyrically piercing. By far it's his most balanced record, where the cheap laughs, borderline sentimentality and grim/noir aspects work well together, reinforcing the emotional impact of each. The middle part of the record through the end is just classic after classic – "Hang Down Your Head" and "Time" and "Rain Dogs" and "9th & Hennepin" and "Gun Street Girl" "Walking Spanish" and "Blind Love" and "Downtown Train" and "Anywhere I Lay My Head." All his dues-paying seemed to pay off in the coalescing of high musical art here.
Day309 - tom waits is becoming my favorite find on this list
Much stronger album than Swordfishetc and best TW album together with Franks Wild Years.
Great album. It felt more balanced than Swordfishtrombones.
4.7 - I think this was probably more accessible. I just find he has so much character
Amazing album from an alternate universe. Not a bad track. Will spin again.
Probably the best Tom Waits? Yeah probably. If I have only one nitpick it’s that parts of it seem weirdly sequenced. But I think that also adds to the charm.
It’s Rain Dogs. Rain Dogs? THE Rain Dogs? Its’s weird and sometimes abrasive, and I’m sure I’m lucky that I first heard it as a young hipster 25 years ago. If I heard it for the first time now, would it be 5 stars? You know…. maybe so. It’s incredible.
You either love him or you hate him and I love him!
Fantastic album, with gem after gem! So diverse, so unpredictable, but so good! 5 stars
One of my favorite albums of all time. Waits is just firing on all cylinders here, and you get such a weird mix of genres from blues, jazz, and caberet to heartland rock and country. It's also one of my favorite guitar albums of all time. Marc Ribot is a mad scientist making me rethink what lead guitar on an album could sound like. And Keith Richards and Robert Quine show up too. Side one is perfection. Side two is a little more uneven, but certainly enough highlights that it's still an easy 5 star album. Highlights for me are "Singapore", "Clap Hands", "Jockey Full of Bourbon", "Tango 'Til They're Sore", "Hang Down Your Head", "Time", "Union Square", "Downtown Train" and "Anywhere I Lay My Head". 5 stars
Easy A. An important album in my formative (college) years.
Despite not having a classic singing voice by anyone’s definition this works so well and is such an interesting listen.
The absence of new Tom Waits music in almost 15 years (and no sign of this changing any time soon) is made more bearable by the existence of his back catalogue, this album being one of the greatest entries in that discography. Hearing this for the first as well as the 20th or 50th time, it's still utterly original and intricate in its themes and instrumentation. And its vocal delivery, of course.
HELL YES. Glad this one showed up. One of my recent favorite albums. Everything about this is exuberant grime. Beautiful and boozy, Tom Waits is definitely one of the most unique singer/songwriters ever. Every song on this album is amazing. His voice is wild. The instrumentation I believe is described as "Junkyard Jazz" and great mixes of classic folk song traditions as well.
Uniquely brilliant. Waits at his best!
If you read about Tom Waits - say, on Spotify - you will notice they mention: — many genres — many instruments — garage lids You’ll also see lots of adjectives and commas — all in pursuit of some way to describe what this eclectic blues, jazz, cabaret, story-telling artist is all about. My favorite album is the one that precedes this (Swordfishtrombones) - that is a 5/5 and this one rounds up to 5.
His sound is so unique. This record is excellent.
This is my fourth(!!) Tom Waits. I rated the first three 4, 4, and 2 stars. Rain Dogs, though, is an absolute triumph. A fascinating, weird, triumph.
I love Tom Waits.
What a great find this one was! A beautifully eccentric portrait of the lesser seen sides of New York. It sounds like if Captain Beefheart was both weirder and more accessible. I never listened to Waits before this challenge. This has been my fifth (and I believe final) of his albums in the generator and it's been my favorite. It's hard to explain why exactly. It's just humorous and raw, and like it came directly from a different reality that most people don't see. Eccentricity is on full display here. Waits' recording technique was physical and deeply connected to the sounds, eschewing simple studio tricks for anything that we could make himself in a bathroom with a microphone, like a foley artist on a dare. I know not everyone would enjoy this but I loved it.
Great record. I love the Island Records albums from Tom Waits. Beyond reproach.
Unexpected, atmospheric and vivid, this album painted a sultry, smoky world I have never come across in music before. The orchestration is wonderful, like the songs are made from the city itself. Great moody vibe after a long walk getting lost in the drizzly hills :)) We had a detour for some ballads, which were solid, but the return for the title track and the screeching Midtown was what I craved. The wild, unique side of Waits is what really has me captivated
This is a fantastic album!
Oh I Love this album. I'm transported when I listen to this, to some dingy world before this, with one armed dwarves and paladins hats. I don't even know what that is! Rod Stewart can keep downtown train though. Five stars.
I have a couple of Tom Waits albums in my collection but this is not one of them. Loved this album. It's a great mix of some sort of bizarre junkyard soul, spiritual, new orleans circus jazz. Great album!
As this album progressed, I went on a journey from “What the hell is this?” to “Ok, I kinda dig it, it’s getting better” to “I think I love him.”
First time I ever heard Tom (and knew who I was listening to) was the first album of his I had on this generator... Heartattack and Vine. Ever since I've been a huge fan! He's so experimental with what he does which keeps it fresh. I love his dirty blues style!! Favourite songs: Walking Spanish, Union Square, Big Black Mariah, Downtown Train Gun Street Girl, Clap Hands, Tango Till They're Sore, Singapore, Hang Down Your Head, Time, Blind Love Least favourite songs: Bride of Rain Dog 5/5
An all time favourite
Beautifully weird masterpiece
Out of everything I’ve heard so far from Tom Waits, this is one of my favorite albums. The album sits solidly on a blues foundation but is also experimental, quirky, and features playful instrumentation. It’s produced in a raw, stripped-down, and gritty way, and when you add Tom Waits’ gravelly voice on top of that, it gives the album a lot of texture. I don’t think this is an album for everyone, but for those who can appreciate it, you’ll hold on tight to this one. It will definitely be a good album to revisit in the future.
Pure poetry!
Better with every listen.
Its Tom Waits, of course its good.
I love Tom Waits and this might be my favorite of his. It's not the right record for any time, but driving alone late at night there isn't a better record.
I'd never listened to this whole album before. 9th and Hennepin is brilliant. I could listen to Blind Love nonstop all day. And Downtown Train is one of the best songs written. Tom Waits is one of the greatest poets of our time. LOVE.
"Rain Dogs" is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits. It is a loose concept album about the urban dispossessed of NYC. There is a broad spectrum of musical styles and genres on the album so the listed genre is experimental which covers everything. It is part of a Tom Waits' 1980's album trilogy which also includes "Swordfishtrombones" and "Frank's Wild Years." The album hit #8 in the UK and #188 in the US. It had wide-spread critical acclaim and is considered one of the best albums of the 1980's. The album starts out with a pounding percussion, double bass, trickling guitar and trombone in "Singapore." This is very vaudeville. Waits is telling of a one-eyed sailor from Singapore. The first single was "Jockey Full of Bourbon." A James Bonds-esque guitar, a bossa nova beat, a trombone and Waits whispering. Top that! Very film noir. "Hang Down Your Head" is a straight-forward rocker. Tom's actually singing a very sad song as he is telling the woman he loves to leave him since she is love with another. The highlight of the first side is "Time." Accordion and acoustic guitar. Great lyrics as he describes a death angel coming to take people when it's their time. Or is it their time? Beautiful song. "Blind Slide" adds a slide guitar. Hey, this is country rock and Keith Richards shows up on guitar and backing vocals. Waits is just belting it out. His girl left him but he'll find her with his blind love. Waits goes almost pop music on "Downtown Train." Waits with emotional vocals sings about falling in love with a girl he sees on the train. Rod Stewart liked this song too. These are unique and at times odd songs. Waits is a detailed storyteller of random people and daily life. There are so many musical styles here (vaudeville, rock, blues, jazz, ballads, folk, pop, country rock and New Orleans funeral marching music). Songs move effortlessly from one to the next. This is a brilliant and tremendous allbum on a number of levels; the music, the lyrics and vocals are all outstanding. This is the best Tom Waits' album that I've heard and would rank pretty high on my best albums of the 1989's.
Man, I love Tom Waits. Even stuff of his I don’t like to listen to as much I at least find interesting and well written most of the time. Some of it is an acquired taste for sure. But some of the instrumentation is off the wall or just so earthy feeling, I guess kinda like hobo blues rock buried underneath decades of cigar smoke and bourbon whiskey, chased with gravel. Sometimes folksy, sometimes dark cabaret. And some NYC avant garde musicians join the eclectic hobo as he eats some beans then sings with his mouth full while strumming some guitar he made out of a box. Anyway, what I like best is probably the lyrics. And the man is just a showman. No bones about it. I guess for better or worse he’s eccentric to a fault and may come off as pompous or aloof, but you can’t convince me he isn’t as half cool as he thinks he is, or at least his fanbase does. But I guess I am a part of that so of course I am biased. Rain Dogs sees Me. Waits at top form, and is widely considered his best album. Songs like Jockey Full of Bourbon, Downtown Train, Anywhere I Lay My Head…. Lots of unmistakeable and timeless classics if you ask me. And it’s all just so heartfelt and human, if sarcastic and wry. I wish he wasn’t so old now and I could still catch hik live, as expensive as it would inevitably be but if not, well, at least I got to see Man Man I guess.
Oh the ninth album by Tom Waits huh? Wow. Dude was prolific! I am majorly iffy on ole Tom. I get him, but I can't say I fully enjoy him. HOLY shit Keith Richards plays guitar on this album? And Rod Stewart (bleh) covered Downtown Train? "Play it like a midget's bar mitzvah!" ha! Waits contributed vocals and piano on the Stones Dirty Work?! Thanks Wikipedia! Oh that isn't Tom Waits on the cover?! "While making feet for children's shoes" is the best way to say "while having sex" that I've ever seen! I didn't like listening to this in the car. It's not car music. It's fireside music. It's comfy chair with headphones music. I had every intention of rating this lower from my listen in the car but I'm going to rate it very high because I still want to listen to this differently. Someday. Maybe.
Probably my 2nd favourite Tom album with 'Bone Machine' just beating it out, but he has multiple masterpieces so doesn't say much. There isn't an artist alive that sounds like him. 19 songs on this album and every one is unique and bizarre in it's own way. He throws everything and the kitchen sink into these, strange lyrics about seedy characters that sound like something out of a carnival horror film. Even if you don't love him, you have to recognise how completely original he is, and this album is one of the best examples from his incredible catalogue.
Absolutely love
Wow. Took a while to get into Tom's vocal style, but man, is this an awesome record. Love the wood percussion going on, great lyrically, just super awesome all round. Favourite tracks: Singapore, Clap Hands, Cemetery Polka, Walking Spanish, Anywhere I Lay My Head
Our mad, American poet troubadour.
Very interesting album, every song like a little adventure. He’s an amazing lyricist and storyteller. I always loved the song “Time” and now I know what madness it comes from. With an artist like this, there will most likely be a love it or hate it. I love it, but something I’m not listing to everyday. The album cover perfectly conveys the strange ride ahead.
Incredibly unique album with some great songwriting for the ages.
I had to tackle a long drive for work today, and I was a little apprehensive about this being my album for the day. I was feeling stressed and running on barely any sleep. Turns out Tom here is a wonderful passenger to have on a long trip. He reminds me kind of like an evil version of Randy Newman (except Downtown Train which sounds like evil Bruce Springsteen) and the variety on this record kept me locked in the whole way through. The rapid shifts between every genre making up the vague tapestry of Americana would be engaging on any album, but to have such a darkly strange take on each genre pushing through was a real treat. I will confess, I did first try to give it a go last night and got pretty turned off by the opening rasp of Singapore. I was considering skipping altogether because I couldn’t anticipate myself being able to give it a fair chance. I cannot tell you how wrong I was. There’s a few songs that don’t click, but as a whole this record knocked my socks off. Top tracks: I actually saved almost this whole record to my master playlist. It would be quicker to say what didn’t click. Bottom tracks: Cemetery Polka, Diamonds And Gold, Midtown, 9th & Hennepin, Union Square, Bride Of Rain Dog
It’s a 5. It’s so weird, but also so tender and passionate. There is a level of accessibility you get with this album that you can’t find in other experimental albums. A great intro to the man
Incredible collection of songs. "Singapore" is an amazing opening track. It sets the tone right away and drops you into Tom Waits' strange world of drunken sailors, dirty streets and circus freaks. I got this song stuck in my head while I was at work and then realized there was no way I could sing it out loud because I'd sound absolutely insane. "Clap Hands" has a great, sexy rhythm that sounds like it was played by a skeleton band. And that bluesy guitar solo rips! The more I listened to this album, the more I realized how many of the songs are rooted in blues. There are some strange, off-kilter songs (like "Cemetery Polka" and the title track) that grab your attention but actually a lot of the music is jazz and blues. But Tom Waits is such force that he plays the music in a completely original style. "Tango Till They're Sore" has one of my all-time favorite lyrics: "Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair." What an image! The sequencing on this album is great because it balances the weird songs nicely with the more emotional ballads and blues numbers. You don't get too much of one style in a row. Two songs in particular stood out to me this time around and made for a great breather: "Hang Down Your Head" and "Downtown Train." Both of them, especially "Downtown Train," could be Bruce Springsteen songs. And considering Tom Waits wrote "Jersey Girl," it's fair to say they listened to each other's music even though they seem incredibly different at first. Wow, that growling scream he does on the last track "Anywhere I Lay My Head"! It's a beautiful song but whoa, nobody would sing it the way he does!
A drunken masterpiece of an album, told from the perspective of the dregs of society. Objectively, Tom Waits has a very grating and difficult voce to like, but somehow, through all the phlegm, his outstanding melodies swim through. There are so many beautiful tracks on this record, stories told with jaded, hurt, and mournful tones, that his voice just kinda works. Almost like the drunk fisherman at the bar is telling you his regrets over grog. Instrumentation is mysterious, odd, and cool, especially the muted marimba and varied percussion. The horn work is great to, fully capturing the spirit of traditional jazz and New Orleans funeral processions to give the album a timeless vibe. Waits touches a lot of genres here, from trad jazz, bossa nova, and blues, to county western, alternative rock, and folk, with plenty of weird mixing in between. I really can't say why this album moved me so much, but the drunken teetering from song to song somehow did. Stand out tracks include "Clap Hands", "Jockey Full Of Bourbon", "Time", "Midtown", "Gun Street Girl", and "Downtown Train".
What can I say about this album. One of my very favorites of all time. It brings me right back to summer of '86 when all of us at my theatre school got turned onto Tom Waits and were obsessed. Forty years after it was recorded, it sounds as good as it did then. This has everything and is indescribable, unless your description is honky-tonky circus pirate cabaret jazz, recorded in an abandoned warehouse with very good equipment. Poetic, moving, hilarious, weird, unforgettable. Tom at the very height of his powers.
Loved it!
Growl <3
Really love this! Thank you for the awesome recommendation! Added many songs to a couple playlists on my listening service!
This is so good. I've never listened to a TW album front to back and it is a treat. Amazing song writing and guitar work.
I think I'm in love. Prior to this listen, I was aware that there was a singer named Tom Waits and that many people who's opinions I tend to share really enjoy him. I'll admit, it took me until Hang Down Your Head for me to finally be bought in, but man do I love this. I've listened to this album four times today. It's such an odd breath of creativity and angst. It's both self deprecating and serious. Looking forward to digging further into this man's catalogue.
Tom Waits' work sits outside of genres - his jazz/blues/scat/vaudeville is a beautiful expression of the dark side of life. Waits tells stories about society's dispossessed and their stories in New York City. Waits' raspy, expressive voice adds to his unique sound - a fascinating amalgamation of styles of American music.
every time I hear a new Tom Waits album, it just totally blows my mind and changes the way I see what you can do with rock and music in general this one definitely sounded pretty similar to Swordfishtrombones but considering that’s my favorite Waits album, I’m not complaining at all — 10/10
This is great! I had only really heard Tom Waits' cabaret-esque songs before, and I never really cared for those, but this has a ton of variety.
Tom Waits' music is strange. But, there is no shortage of strange people. Some also make music, which is often strange. But none of this strange music, other than Tom Waits', cultivates the strange. Impregnates the strange. Raises it to the sublime.
Well it’s time, time, time
Love this. It feels very familiar and very strange at the same time. And you can hear the influences, but Tom wears them lightly here. There's a great flow to this as a suite of songs, too. This is everything an album should be.
The first time I had my now wife in my truck, on the way to a catering event, I had this album in the cd player. The looks I got, the commentary, I'll never know how close I was to blowing it without even knowing it lol. But this lp is classic, back to back and I stopped adding songs to our Playlist out of respect to the other albums ND artists we've yet to discover.
My third TW album off this list, and head and shoulders above the other two (Nighthawks and Bone Machine). Not saying I'd choose to listen to this on the regular, but listening to this I get him in a way I didn't with the previous albums; weird in a good way
….. okay. It grew on me.
Perfection!
Together with Swordfishtrombones this album is the magnus opum of Tom Waits. Blues, folk and jazz rock songs with strange guitar melodies and a raw voice that can crack your head open while being so comforting.
6/5 easy
This album practically smells like a wet dog.
two by four by door
It was madness in an album and I was a slave to it.
My first full Tom Waits album. Didn’t disappoint.
Fantastic
The musical equivalent of using a cheese grater to exfoliate your skin - surprisingly satisfying.
Tom Waits’ vocals alone makes Rain Dogs an easy 5/5. Waits further explores the fascinating and experimental depths that musicians like Captain Beefheart first came across, but he does it with such an ease and raw beauty that he suddenly opens up this weird musical world to a much larger audience.
This record should have been the soundtrack for Saint Denis in RDR2
One of his greatest
If Heartattack and Vine was a 4, this is a reasonably solid 5 for me; it elevates from "good" to "excellent". Standout tracks are the title track and Downtown Train, but the whole thing is pretty great.
Perfection. You could do a remake of nightmare before christmas with this as the soundtrack
This album is so damn good.
Fabulous!
If I could give this album a million stars I would. This album FUCKS! I do not care if people find Tom Waits voice off putting or "bad"; NOTHING else can bring out the beauty of the ugly world than those vocals. Favorite tracks: Fucking all of them.
So last Tom Waits album, I didn't really get it. The gravel doesn't lend itself well to general music. This album? Perfect. It's a character actor voice. Here he plays a character on every song and it's genius.
Stupendous.
I love this. I don't know why but I do.
Wonderful album. Not immediately catchy, sometimes not even melodic. But the lyrics are wonderful, TW's voice is perfect for them, and you want to listen to it again tomorrow.
I once ha a nightmare involving riding the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disneyland, it sounded like this. Honestly it's a great eclectic album. Come for the experience and stay for the amazing "Downtown Train" towards the end. Love the weirdness and the bluesy songs.
Such a unique and quirky record. I adore some of the songs on this raucous beast of an album.
Scatterbrained in the best way.
Top Tracks: 1. Time 2. Downtown Train 3. Blind Love
I thought this was class. Great music, fun lyrics.
Chuck berry meets peaky blinders. Love it
Weird and wonderful
Fantastic. All the way around. Creative songwriting. Original, gritty, clever. Love it!
So weird. Loved it!
This was so much fun to listen to. Definitely coming back to this. The harmony is so wild, unhinged at times. I like fun street girl, big black Mariah, jockey full bourbon and tango a lot.
Tom Waits is so cool. Favorites were Tango Till They’re Sore and Diamonds and Gold. Not a 5 in the real world but a 5 for this project.
This is one of the best and wildest albums out there! I Fucking love Tom Waits and his strange and unusual ways. Everything he does seems like people would tell you to do the opposite but he absolutely crushes it. An absolute psycho and I’m here for it! 10/10
What a surprise. How do I love this rough voice so much? The kind of album you could always hear something new in.
So good
Love Tom Waits.
In my top 100
literally my favorite album ever. where do i even begin?
Demands and rewards repeated listens, it's the veey opposite of background music
One of my favorite Waits records. Wish I would've given him a chance years ago.
Heftige greier!
Great, different, but it could totally grow on me
I like the funk. This album with the New Orleans influences really spoke to me. I felt like this was the musical equivalent of House of Leaves, it was experimental, and a piece of art. It was spoken poetry one moment and uptown funk the next. It gave me feelings of Audrey Hepburn and then jazz parades, after that, I was turning a corner into a noir film. The next moment I was met by the deep bass voice that ran through the album keeping it coherent and gave the entire thing a flow. All in all I absolutely loved it for the work of art that it is, it filled me up, and didn't let me down. 35/20 bananas. 5 stars.
I love this album so much. It is in my favorite top 3 Tom Waits albums. When I first started listening to Waits around 2001, I wasn’t mature enough to enjoy his piano ballads. Now that I have aged like a fine carton of milk, my soft middle-aged brain/heart accepts every note Tom has ever recorded. Over 20 years ago, I used to skip tracks like Blind Love, but now it feeds my soul. I still get plenty of joy out of the weirdo favorites like Jockey Full of Bourbon and Clap Hands, but hearing songs like Anywhere I lay My Head and Blind Love is what I look for when I put on a Tom Waits album these days. If you like Tom Waits, there is a better-than-a-good chance we would get along. More Waits, please! 6 out of 5 stars.
Love it!
Great
New Orleans. Gothic. Fairy Tales. Blues. Great lyrics.
My favorite of his
God, this album goes so hard. Yes. Fuck yes, Tom.
Oui! Un vrai choc. C'est bizarre mais merde c'est beau. Au moins je ne me serai pas lancé dans ce bazar pour rien : j'aurai au moins découvert cet album
Escuché el primer tema y se me vino a la cabeza instantáneamente la parte de Robots que están en el deshuesadero. Y claro, es un tema del mismo chabón (busquen Underground de Tom Waits). Alto disco, flashero y experimental.
Genial.
I love this album! Tom Waits is definitely an acquired taste though, not everyone's cup of tea.
Tom Waits at his finest.
Sounds fresh even 40 years later
I'm quite familiar with this. It's Tom Waits. You probably love it or hate it. This is a no Brainerd 5 for me. Tom is just a phenomenal dude.
Love it. I could listen to this all the time. Never was there a greater combination than Tom Wait's voice and the quirky folk music he sings over.
Superb album. Great tracks with some super standout numbers, Hang Down Your Head & Jockey Full of Bourbon. Revitalised Rod Stewart’s career as well.
His best album in my opinion, which I don't say lightly as a superfan. It sounds like he was so in-stride. In some ways it's a great distillation of his career, because he uses so many styles, dabbles in different genres, uses various voices and characters. Lots of great songs, not a dud on the album. I could go on and on, if I could give this one an extra star I would. My favorites on the album are probably the first and the last song, "Singapore" and "Anywhere I Lay My Head."
Easily my second favorite Tom Waits album and probably his best. I don't want to live in the world he depicts but goddamn do I love imagining it as he describes it one story at a time. He is the king of texture, especially with his signature outside the box percussion. "Anywhere I Lay My Head" is a fantastic closer, like a New Orleans funeral that tears you up, but also feels triumphant and joyful. Bonus: he mentions both Cincinnati and Minneapolis in the lyrics.
Waits, discussing his mistrust of then fashionable studio techniques, said, "If I want a sound, I usually feel better if I've chased it and killed it, skinned it and cooked it. Most things you can get with a button nowadays. So if I was trying for a certain drum sound, my engineer would say, 'Oh, for Christ's sake, why are we wasting our time? Let's just hit this little cup with a stick here, sample something (take a drum sound from another record) and make it bigger in the mix, don't worry about it.' I'd say, 'No, I would rather go in the bathroom and hit the door with a piece of two-by-four very hard.' Hell ya. Also the inclusion of guitarists Keith Richards and Marc Ribot add a very nice chaotic-playing style. Although quite abrasive, there is a mix of some quieter songs like "Time". Classic Waits.
While it might be his most commercial album, there is a certain charm to this album that made me a life-long fan.
A scary drunk (ghost?) pirate wanders into a haunted house, sits down at the piano, and orders another whiskey
My ear normally is at it most blissful when listening to lush, polished pop, but this album struck something deep within me. I wish I could teleport myself to New York City on a snowy day to enjoy it in its full glory. 9/10 Fave: Time or maybe Anywhere I lay my head
Classic
Late in the evening, in the land of one-armed dwarves, broken promises, women with wooden legs and dive-bars, Tom Waits is King. "I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things"
Superb album with a great and intense interpretation of all the lyrics and also an outstanding composition: masterpiece!
This album is a party. I can't say I was ever much of a Tom Waits fan other than moderately admiring his off-beat persona, but this album changed everything. I love this whole thing from start to finish. I like the instrumentals, Waits's unique voice, the poetic lyrics, and the variations in terms of the musicality. There are songs like Singapore and Clap Hands that are wacky, theatrical pieces, there are songs like 9th and Hennepin that are full-on beat poetry recitations, and then there are songs like Downtown Train that feel like an attempt at a Top 40 single in the style of Dire Straits, the Cars, or Springsteen. Love this album. Will definitely re-listen to it!
Very unpredictable track to track but still very good
A fucking brilliant Tom Waits album, one of his very best no doubt. Getting this on Halloween weekend also really works for me so cheers for that. Just so much fun. Jockey Full of Bourbon is something else. As is the title track. Marc Ribot is tremendous. All of it is something else. The stories! I feel sad for anyone who just can't enjoy this. But they almost certainly hated Devo too. Phil Collins...
Tom's got the magic marimba blues and it's beautiful.
ideal long walk home in the rain slicked streets album
Magnificent album, the best of the 'Franks' wild years' trilogy and my favourite Tom Waits album. It's a kaleidoscope of styles, sounds and stories all rooted in a downtown world of dives, old world funerals, and hard-bitten women for whom 'nothing that a $100 wouldn't cure'
This was a bit of a treat. With Tom Waits it kind of depends on whether or not you like his shtick, and I generally do. But I don't think I'd ever heard this record, though I know some of the songs. It's great, musicically adventurous and lyrically interesting. Best song for me is Hang Down Your Head just pipping the more obvious Downton Train.
Fantastic collection different sounds and moods for each song all tied together by the uniquely beautiful voice of Tom Waits
Everyone deserves to hear Tom Waits' cigarettes and sandpaper voice sing them this gutter opera.
Un album que je possède et ai écouté souvent. Impossible de ne pas avoir de frissons quand on entend Anywhere I Lay My Head... J'aime la voix et j'aime que ce soit unique.
Solid 5.
Five stars. One of the absolute best albums on the list.
Oh shit guess we are in it now with Singapore. Clap Hands sounds really familiar. This one is more snappy and to the point than Swordfishtrombones, which was a good one. Gun Street Girl is killer. Walking Spanish is so evocative.
Chalk it up to me being over-tired while listening to this album, but I thought this was excellent. As I tend to do, I focused more on the background music than the lyrics, but the clunky mix of brass, marimbas, and miscellany painted its own picture of Waits’ smoky, rough-and-tumble city. Also the songs are good HL: “Downtown Train”, “Tango Till They’re Sore”, “Hang Down Your Head” September 17th, 2022
This one's already very fun! Strange guy, never listened to Tom Waits before. It really gives the guy from Over the Garden Wall, the Highwayman. I like it! Old soulful dark barstool crooning, bluesy.