Then...there are the characters. Music this textured deserves 'em. Horse Face Ethel, Jenny with the Light Brown Hair, Bum Mahoney, Bowlegged Sal, Piggy Knowles. They're all there, inhabiting Waits' underworld.
And lets not forget Waits' voice. He caresses, croaks, screams and grunts his way through this big, beautiful mess. Hell, he even samples himself and uses it as a percussion element. It's fun and a little disconcerting, both the sound of it and the idea of Waits using modern technology (let's face it, what thing makes more "Tom Waits Sense": a sampler or the sound of a pipe wrench wackin' a trash can?).
Perhaps most shocking (and most American) of all are the bits of political musings. Though a very small part of the whole deal, they do hit their mark. The divided nature of our opinions regarding the war in Iraq (actually, war in general) are beautifully expressed in the form of a letter from a soldier ("Tomorrow"):
- You can't deny, the other side
Don't want to die anymore
Then we do, what I'm
Trying to say is don't they pray
To the same God that we do?
And tell me how does God
Choose, who's prayers does he
Refuse?
Real Gone may just be Waits' most focused album. It's not pre-washed, stone-washed, or any of that other faux-marketing nonsense. It's the real thing. Sincere and without pretense. Waits has, accidentally or not, produced a record so "self-iconic" that..well, cheap cliché or not...it really is like your favorite pair of jeans: well-worn, full of character and hard to improve upon.
(First posted on Mark Is Cranky)
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