Tom Waits -- Frank's Wild Years

6/10

And here's the next Tom Waits album that sounds exactly like the last Tom Waits album. Weird, downtown backroom hungover jazz played on the remains of a corpse that sounds cool as hell for about 20 minutes, but starts to get old long before the 17-track, near hour-long album concludes. Waits' voice, sounding like an articulate dog gargling whiskey, is seasoned and lovable as always, but why does he have to make these albums so long when the margins of his sound are so narrow?


1987 Island Records
1. Hang on St. Christopher 2:46
2. Straight to the Top (Rhumba) 2:30
3. Blow Wind Blow 3:35
4. Temptation 3:53
5. Innocent When You Dream (Barroom) 4:15
6. I'll Be Gone 3:12
7. Yesterday Is Here 2:29
8. Please Wake Me Up 3:36
9. Franks Theme 1:49
10. More Than Rain 3:52
11. Way Down in the Hole 3:30
12. Straight to the Top (Vegas) 3:26
13. I'll Take New York 3:58
14. Telephone Call from Istanbul 3:12
15. Cold Cold Ground 4:07
16. Train Song 3:20
17. Innocent When You Dream (78) 3:08