No. 3 of 2011: Tom Waits - Bad As Me

It all starts in Chicago.  And with Tom Waits bellowing like a cyclone, the concern you begin to feel hardens and develops into a palpable sense of dread.  I'm afraid of what I'm going to see. 

Thank you, Mr. Waits.

The barker cries foul and the girl lies dead and we are all witness to the spectacle of our own mistakes.  Cornered and bruised, our memories stitched together with the practiced hand of a skilled weaver, Tom Waits leads us into temptation and asks us what we would do for redemption.  For one more chance to made things right.  But of course, it's all a dream and our actions have already set into motion events which will change us from the people we are to the things we fear.  We all pay the toll as we descend, with the mischievous carnival man riding on our shoulder.  Did we ever think we could get away with any of it?

Bad As Me is Tom Waits latest entry into the mire and entropy of the human heart.  Whereas some of his earlier albums centered on our need for love and the barest form of acceptance, this album knows that we are all pieces of shit and that we must pay for the extravagances we have all so richly entertained.  Starting with the roaring shakedown of "Chicago", he commands this stage and wonders whether change is needed, whether "things will be better in Chicago".  This use of movement and travel punctates much of Bad As Me and only further cements our place by his side, as his companion, for better and probably worse.  Even the slower mournful tracks like "Kiss Me" and "Last Leaf" evoke a sense of loss and forgotten love, that this has all passed and we are helpless to bring it back.  And it's in these quieter moments that the sheer power of Waits words move us beyond our own cares and into the despair of the damned.  We cannot change anything. It would be folly to even try.  And as if this wasn't enough, he hammers home that point with "Hell Broke Luce" a testament to the eternally dying.  Beyond the anti-militaristic sentiment, Waits is commenting on the destruction of society on a global scale, while also placing emphasis on our own individual culpability.  We will end ourselves.  We need no devil to help us with that.  I can still hear him laughing.

Tracklisting:

01. Chicago
02. Raised Right Men
03. Talking at the Same Time
04. Get Lost
05. Face to the Highway
06. Pay Me
07. Back in the Crowd
08. Bad as Me
09. Kiss Me
10. Satisfied
11. Last Leaf
12. Hell Broke Luce (listen to the mp3 below)
13. New Year’s Eve