Tom Waits -- Mule Variations

8/10

Well, this is the first I've heard of Tom Waits...I thought during the summer of 1999, when some critics were already calling Waits' Mule Variations the album of the year. I was really coming into my own as far as discovering artists that year, and I hadn't yet seen any Jim Jarmusch films, so while I was being exposed to an avalanche of new stuff that summer before my senior year of high school...for me it was all new stuff.

The summer seemed like an early point to call an album the best one that would be released for that year, though. What about the whole second half of the year's releases? I wanted to be cool, though, so I at least checked out Waits' work. Mule Variations, released the very same week as a Tom Petty album I reviewed a few days ago, isn't my favorite album from 1999 (I'll make a list for that one day), but it is my favorite Tom Waits album

Yes, it's 21 years later, and now I know who Tom Waits is. I've listened to a lot of his music, and I've seen him in a lot of movies. I like Tom Waits. I've had a hard time connecting to most of his album as a whole, despite the fact that I love Waits' voice and aesthetic. For me, his albums all start to get samey and old about halfway through, a fact not helped by how every album's length seems more bloated than the last. The sixteen track, SEVENTY MINUTE length of Mule Variations doesn't solve this latter problem, but it does solve the former. Waits keeps the momentum going here by throwing in a tender ballad about once every 2.5 songs, giving the album, and those tracks that follow his more unique elements, more room to breathe, instead of just pummeling the listener to numbness with them. Of course, if the ballads themselves were boring, this wouldn't work. Thankfully, the ballads here are actually some of the strongest songs in Waits' catalogue. 

Mule Variations kicks off with the rowdy "Big in Japan," showcasing a big trashcan beat, and Waits' trademarked gravel at the bottom of a deep whiskey bottle voice. Waits then goes to his trademarked lo-fi depression-era dungeon vibe for the atmospheric "Lowside of the Road," before gently rolling into the album's first ballad, "Hold On." It's an oddly reassuring and comforting song, featuring as nurturing and kindly a vocal as Waits can muster, singing as addictive a melody as has come out of any of his albums. It's arguably his best song.

The beautiful change of pace allows Waits to immediately dive back into his thing, with the lo-fi, four a.m. rural workman's blues of "Get Behind the Mule." As soon as that song ends, though, he's back to balladeering, with the sad tale of "House Where Nobody Lives." Then it's back to rowdiness, with the ode to hobo'ing it, "Cold Water." At this point, I am feeling like maybe this is the best album of 1999, but then the old enemy of all Waits' albums rears its ugly head: overstuffing. 

By this point in the album, we've had 30 minutes of music. Truthfully, there's already been somewhat of an emotional arc here. Maybe, it's time to wrap things up...Tom Waits definitely didn't say, because there are ten more songs, and forty more minutes of music ahead. 

"Pony" rears its head--yes, looks like I am just going to track-by-track Mule Variations--and it's the first ballad that doesn't hit, and just kind of putters around aimlessly. The menacing spoken word of "What's He Building" is a great bit of end-of-the-century apocalyptic fun, but it would work better without the weight of another eight tracks bearing down on it. "Black Markey Baby" is fine, but doesn't add much more than an extra five minutes of sad, lo-fi blues. "Eyeball Kid"'s carnival freakshow energy is bizarre and fun, but as the tenth track in a sixteen-track album, it feels buried. "Picture In a Frame" is one of Mule Variation's most beautiful ballads, and a reminder that this is a good album that started off great, near perfect. Then, the lo-fi blues of "Chocolate Jesus" rolls around, and it's got some deep thoughts, but works as a reminder itself that you're in the overstuffed middle of an album that would be better without it and most of the songs that surround it.

Next is album nadir, "Georgia Lee," the album's worst ballad, with a very lousy, repetitive melody that just doesn't work, and almost makes you want to quit, though by now you've sunk so much time into the album, you might as well hear the last three tracks. Good thing you did, though, as they're three of Mule Variations' best. First is the wild and audacious junkyard fire stomp of "Filipino Box Spring Hog," which includes the line, "I was naked to the waist with my fierce black hound." Next is the quick and affecting ballad "Take It with Me," which leads directly into the raucous, cathartic closer, "Come On Up to the House," my favorite Tom Waits song.

In fact, I'd go as far to say, "Come On Up to the House" is not only my favorite Waits song, by my favorite modern hymn and gospel song, with some of my favorite lyrics, as well.

Well, the moon is broken and the sky is cracked
Come on up to the house
The only things that you can see is all that you lack
Come on up to the house
All your cryin' don't do no good
Come on up to the house
Come down off the cross, we can use the wood
You gotta come on up to the house

Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin through
You gotta come on up to the house

There's no light in the tunnel, no irons in the fire
Come on up to the house
And you're singin lead soprano in a junkman's choir
You gotta come on up to the house
Does life seem nasty, brutish and short?
Come on up to the house
The seas are stormy and you can't find no port
Gotta come on up to the house

Come on up to the house

Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin through
You gotta come on up to the house

There's nothin in the world that you can do
You gotta come on up to the house
And you been whipped by the forces that are inside you
Gotta come on up to the house
Well, you're high on top of your mountain of woe
Gotta come on up to the house
Well, you know you should surrender, but you can't let go
You gotta come on up to the house

Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin through
You gotta come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin through
You gotta come on up to the house

There's nothin in the world that you can do
You gotta come on up to the house
And you been whipped by the forces that are inside you
Gotta come on up to the house
Well, you're high on top of your mountain of woe
Gotta come on up to the house
Well, you know you should surrender, but you can't let go
You gotta come on up to the house

Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin through
You gotta come on up to the house

There's nothin in the world that you can do
You gotta come on up to the house
And you been whipped by the forces that are inside you
Gotta come on up to the house
Well, you're high on top of your mountain of woe
Gotta come on up to the house
Well, you know you should surrender, but you can't let go
You gotta come on up to the house

Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin through
You gotta come on up to the house

This great, beautiful song has never failed to, at minimum, make me tear up. It's a great song on an album full of great songs, but also too much filler. Here is what I would do if I could make a perfect edit of Mule Variations:

1. Big in Japan 4:05

2. Lowside of the Road 2:59
3. Hold On 5:33
4. Get Behind the Mule 6:52
5. House Where Nobody Lives 4:14
6. Cold Water 5:23

7. Filipino Box Spring Hog 3:09 

8. Picture in a Frame 3:39
9. Take It with Me 4:24

10. What's He Building? 3:20
11. Come On Up to the House 4:36

Forty minutes of nearly perfect music, plus you get the danger of insularity in "What's He Building" leading straight into the celebratory rejection of that in the triumphant "Come On Up to the House." As it is, the over-stuffed, original version of Mule Variations is still very, very good, but there's a great, perhaps perfect album in here that could be freed of the seventy minute-shackles surrounding it.


1999 ANTI-
1. Big in Japan 4:05
2. Lowside of the Road 2:59
3. Hold On 5:33
4. Get Behind the Mule 6:52
5. House Where Nobody Lives 4:14
6. Cold Water 5:23
7. Pony 4:32
8. What's He Building? 3:20
9. Black Market Baby 5:02
10. Eyeball Kid 4:25
11. Picture in a Frame 3:39
12. Chocolate Jesus 3:55
13. Georgia Lee 4:24
14. Filipino Box Spring Hog 3:09
15. Take It with Me 4:24
16. Come On Up to the House 4:36