This album is beautiful, and restrained, and brilliantly
\nexecuted. It is a masterwork of melodies that are haunting, dark,
\nself-consciously perverse and above all else, moving. Ostensibly it
\nis about the love between Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, and
\nAlice Liddell. But really, the emotions is conveys and the feelings
\nit evokes are universal. The musical accompaniment to Tom Waits’
\ncrooning here is without guitars; he only uses saxophones, violins,
\nand other “soft” instruments. On first listen, I was disappointed
\nin that — I felt he was restraining himself, but then I realized
\nthat it fits the mood and creates the appropriate, almost darkly
\nVictorian atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The opening track is the hook, the beauty that draws you in.
\nIt’s a story of deep and misguided obsession, told with just light
\npiano and saxophone accompaniment. “And I must be insane \/ To go
\nskating on your name \/ And by tracing it twice \/ I fell through the
\nice \/ Of Alice.” Waits restrains his voice, coming across more
\nmournful than usual.<\/p>\n
The album begins to explore the madness of obsession further,
\nwith “Everything You Can Think,” dark and haunting. The standard
\nTom Waits delivery returns here, sort of that mucusy-spitting
\nsound, but it works with the lyrics quite well.<\/p>\n
The beauty just continues; “Flower’s Grave” and “No One Knows
\nI’m Gone” are both tragic and haunting, speaking of loneliness and
\ndesperation. The instruments shine brightly here; the echoing
\nmelody tapped out on piano in “Flower’s Grave” is perfect —
\nrestrained and melodic, feeling slow and deliberate, much like the
\nlyrics.<\/p>\n
“Kommienezuspadt” is the closest thing this album gets to an
\noutright rocker. The grinding, clanking in the background, the
\ngerman words, the delivery — it all adds up to a grinding, violent
\nsounding track that completely distracts from the fact that it
\nappears to be delivered by none other than the White Rabbit
\nhimself. “And I can’t be late!” It’s either a very strong track or
\nan annoyance; I’ve come to appreciate it because it builds very
\nwell, adding layers and saxophone punctuations and ultimately
\ndescends into theme of madness that appears throughout the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
“Table Top Joe” is a weak track. Tom Waits has been described as
\n“all character, no substance” and that certainly applies here. It’s
\nnot dreadful, but it’s not an every-time track, either. It may just
\nbe my inability to see the meaning, but the track feels out of
\nplace here, particularly following the exquisitely beautiful
\ntragedy “Poor Edward.”<\/p>\n
“Watch Her Disappear” is staggering in its intensity; the
\nimagery, the obsession, the need, the loneliness. It’s not quite a
\nspoken-word track, and it’s not quite musical, but it works on so
\nmany levels. It’s a short glimpse into the mind of a desperately
\nobsessed man, and it sends chills down my spine.<\/p>\n
The rest of the album is exquisite; “I’m Still Here” is
\nheart-wrenching, better than any similarly themed song from
\nChicago<\/i>. The last three songs on the album may be the most
\nbeautiful music Tom Waits has ever produced — “Fish & Bird” is
\na beautiful fable of impossible love. The music all comes together
\nhere, providing four minutes of perfect beauty, of stark futility
\nbut poignant and impressive passion “Barcarolle” is the perfect
\nexpression of depression, acceptance of the impossibility, the
\nhopelessness of the obsession that tortures our narrator. “And the
\nchildren are all gone into town \/ To get candy and we are alone in
\nthe house here \/ And your eyes fall down on me.”<\/p>\n
This album is possibly the most beautiful Tom Waits has ever
\ndone; it may not be his best, because he certainly constrained
\nhimself musically here, but it is his most passionate and moving
\nand tragic — his starkest expression of passion and despair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":27044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6262],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38370","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tom-waits","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38370"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}