Entry 512 - Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones

 

I'm going to fail at describing how strange this record is. There is no way that I can do justice to the fifteen songs contained within Swordfishtrombones. There is no way.

Swordfishtrombones is a great album title. Before hearing the album I thought "what on earth is a swordfishtrombone?" This was my exact reaction to the music contained within the album... "what on earth is this?" 

Every single song is different from the next, there is no continuity. Ironically, that is what makes the whole thing work. It's a chaotic mess that comes together to create near perfection.

Prior to this, Tom Waits was largely known as a male vocal lead slow lounge songs. That started changing with the later 70's albums, but no one could have seen what was coming in the 80's.

Swordfishtrombones has blues, lounge, classical, swing, circus music, spoken word, rock and roll, jazz... and about thirty other genres worked into one record. One moment Tom will be crooning over a piano as if he's in a smoke saturated bar. The next track is a blues guitar that sounds like its recorded in someones garage.  Tom sounds like someone who is trying to sing but is held back because hes smoked three packs of cigarettes for ten years straight.

More songs have Tom narrating in his natural speaking voice over percussion, wailing like a banshee, or raging like an alcoholic. Instrumentals of various styles and some just plain bizarre songs round out the album. 

There was a rumor I once heard that the xylophones used on the album were made out of bone. I don't know if there is any merit to that, but it gives the listener a sense of how strange and off the wall this album is.

I don't think I've even scratched the surface on how utterly strange, fascinating, and mindbogglingly fucked this album is. There is nothing in the world like Tom Waits 80's albums, and there never will be. Tom launched himself into a new world of music. One that is strange and horrific, yet beautiful in the most unexpected ways possible. A masterpiece, calling it anything less would be uncivilized.