Tom Waits

Subtitled "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts," Frank's Wild Years introduces Waits' collaborative partnership with his new wife, Kathleen Brennan. The seed of the concept came from the track by the same name on Swordfishtrombones, which was sketched out into a play that debuted in Chicago's venerated Steppenwolf Theatre a year before the LP's 1987 release. Its strength as a standalone LP is varied, but tunes like "Hang On St. Christopher" and "Innocent When You Dream" shine, as does the tortured "Temptation," where Waits' collaboration with guitarist Marc Ribot is a screaming triumph.

The champagne wishes and caviar dreams of two-bit drifters have been Tom Waits's stock
in trade through a fourteen-year career. And this album, subbilled as Un Operachi
Romantico in Two Acts and comprising songs drawn from Waits's stage play of the same
name (co-written by his wife, Kathleen Brennan), pretty well summarizes his world view.
This rags-to-rags tale completes the trilogy that began with 1983's Swordfishtrom... More >

Amid these fragments from a musical that wouldn't make all that much sense fully staged, you'll find five-six songs that stand on their own--couple howlin' blues, coupla tuneful heart-tuggers, coupla Wayne Newton parodies. But if in the '20s Rudy Vallee sang through a megaphone because he wanted to sound modern, in the '80s Waits sings through a megaphone because he wants to sound old. This being the '80s, you're free to prefer Waits--as long as you don't kid yourself too much about his conceptual thrust. (Grade: B)