Tom Waits -- Rain Dogs

7/10

Back in late 1999, during Senior Year, I kept seeing Tom Waits' Mule Variations show up on "best albums of the year" lists. I'd heard a few of Mule Variations' songs on KLSU, and I liked Waits' vibe, so I decided I wanted to try to get into his music. Everyone said 1985's Rain Dogs was the place to start, with critics referring to that album as a classic. Throughout my adult life, it seems the most frequent way I piss people off is by having criticism for their sacred cows.
I don't think The Clash's London Calling is a perfect album? I'm an idiot and shouldn't be reviewing things.
I think Quentin Tarantino's newest movie sucks? I'm an idiot and shouldn't be reviewing things.
Well, I enjoy parts of Rain Dogs, but I also find the album overlong, and a bit repetitive. Come at me bro. It's always bros.
Yes, Rain Dogs features Tom Waits' idiosyncratic, jazz-influenced, seemingly played on pots and pans music at its most idiosyncratic. Yes, Rain Dogs features Waits' idiosyncratic, deep and gravelly singing voice at its most idiosyncratic. Yes, I actually love both of those things. But Rain Dogs is 19 songs long. I didn't need 19 songs here. To me, Waits' music from this period is very punk in the way it casts off conventions, and follows Waits' muse, to capture the dirty, lower bowel sounds of the city. A punk album shouldn't be 54-minutes long. I keep trying to have a completely enjoyable listen of Rain Dogs, but I always end up getting a little bored before it's over. I like it, but I don't love it. My listening experience always goes like this:
Waits' dark, carnival freak atmosphere immediately scratches an itch, and by track two, "Clap Hands," which features a driving percussion akin to someone playing a xylophone with a femur, I always start thinking this is going to be the listen that I get it. At track four, the unfathomable back-alley latin blues cool of "Jockey Full of Bourbon" reinforces that attitude. The rundown New Orleans cellar-jazz of track five, "Tango Till They're Sore," makes me feel like I've just woke up in a backroom bar in that city with an overjoyed hangover. Track eight, "Hang Down Your Head," is a sentimental ballad that sounds like it was written by a half-mad genius. But then a second ballad, "Time," rolls around, an absolutely gorgeous song that sounds like a perfect album closer. At this point, I always realize Rain Dogs isn't even halfway over...and I'm already done with it. Those first nine songs are a perfect album. The next ten songs are just absolutely fine, but they don't introduce any truly new ideas not found in the first nine.

*sigh*
By now, I'm several years older than Waits was when he first released Rain Dogs. I think it's safe to say, this is my definitive opinion on Rain Dogs at this point. From here on out, I'll be content to listen to bits and pieces of the album and enjoy them, but I don't think I'm going to go for a front-to-back listen again. I'm gonna keep reviewing stuff, though...

1985 Island Records
1. Singapore 2:46
2. Clap Hands 3:47
3. Cemetery Polka 1:51
4. Jockey Full of Bourbon 2:45
5. Tango Till They're Sore 2:49
6. Big Black Mariah 2:44
7. Diamonds & Gold 2:31
8. Hang Down Your Head Kathleen Brennan, Waits 2:32
9. Time 3:55
10. Rain Dogs 2:56
11. Midtown (instrumental) 1:00
12. 9th & Hennepin 1:58
13. Gun Street Girl 4:37
14. Union Square 2:24
15. Blind Love 4:18
16. Walking Spanish 3:05
17. Downtown Train 3:53
18. Bride of Rain Dog (instrumental) 1:07
19. Anywhere I Lay My Head 2:48