Style: Tom Waits version of American folk
Primary Emotions/Themes: Humanity, loss, sorrow, human struggles, strange and bizarre comings and goings
Thoughts: I don't know if I've ever been so disappointed in a Tom Waits album as I am with Blood Money. It's not that this is a bad album by any means. In fact in a vacuum this is a fantastic album. It's just that this album is not in a vacuum, and for Mr. Waits it sounds way too similar to the rest of his works... almost to the point where it sounds like Tom Waits painting by numbers.
Tom's music is special to me. It's not just any other artist, this is one of the few great American folk singers left. Is this folk like you would get out of the 70's during the freedom movements? No, not in the slightest. This music is rooted deep in the old American ways and is experimental in ways that are just not done anymore. Tom Waits is one of the last bastions of this style.
Blood Money follows all of those traditions to a T. There are quirky songs with strange instruments that are being played in frankly bizarre ways. Tom's voice wails, rages, croons, and rejoices above all of it like he always does. And I think that's kind of the problem here... at least for me.
Blood Money is an album that he has done before. If Waits is known for one thing it's experimentation, and I just don't hear it here. Of course I hear his music, there is no other artist on earth that this could be... but I don't hear the playfulness or the wacky experimentation that I look for with Tom's music. I miss it greatly.
This album is by no means bad, in fact it's quite good. Any Tom Waits album is better than almost any other musician out there. He's easily in my top artists of all time list. I just miss what makes his music special and magical on this one. It's not a bad album... it just doesn't feel right.
Written February 1st 2024
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