Tom Waits - Small Change

A man and his paino, a jazzy sound; a brilliant album. The songs here are comical (Pasties & A G-String), they are heartbreaking, literally (Bad Liver & A Broken Heart), they are narrative (Small Change (Got Rained on With His Own .38)), and they are always fascinating and wonderful to listen to; beautiful poetry set to a jazzy musical background. This is Tom Waits’ fourth album and the perfection of his hipster poet persona; though not the last before he ventured into entirely new territory, see Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs.

The first thing one may note about a Tom Waits album is his voice, described by one as “Like how you'd sound if you drank a quart of bourbon, smoked a pack of cigarettes and swallowed a pack of razor blades… Late at night. After not sleeping for three days.” Of course, Waits did drink, a lot, and he did smoke; and this can be seen in his lyrics (The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)), among others. And of course it is the lyrics, songs of the derelict, the downtrodden, sung by one of their own, that make Small Change, or any Waits album, so intriguing, so enjoyable.

Grade: A+
The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) mp3