Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Official album announcement

TomWaits.com has announced the new Tom Waits album Bad as me:

Bad As Me is Tom Waits’ first studio album of all new music in seven years. This pivotal work refines the music that has come before and signals a new direction. Waits, in possibly the finest voice of his career, worked with a veteran team of gifted musicians and longtime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. From the opening horn-fueled chug of “Chicago,” to the closing barroom chorale of “New Year’s Eve,” Bad As Me displays the full career range of Waits’ songwriting, from beautiful ballads like “Last Leaf,” to the avant cinematic soundscape of “Hell Broke Luce,” a battlefront dispatch. On tracks like “Talking at the Same Time,” Waits shows off a supple falsetto, while on blues burners like “Raised Right Men” and the gospel tinged “Satisfied” he spits, stutters and howls. Like a good boxer, these songs are lean and mean, with strong hooks and tight running times. A pervasive sense of players delighting in each other’s musical company brings a feeling of loose joy even to the album’s saddest songs.

The Kings Road Merch store lists the following editions ready for pre-order: a cd (13 tracks), a cd deluxe version (in a 'stunning hard bound book-like case' with a 40 page booklet sewn on the inside, and the cd with the 13 tracks and another cd with three bonus songs) and a vinyl album (180g - with 13 tracks). All of those have an 'in store date' of the 24th (Europe) or 25th (North America) of October.

On Youtube you can witness Tom Waits' private listening party:




Track listing (by Kings Road Merch):

  1. Chicago
  2. Raised Right Men
  3. Talking At The Same Time
  4. Get Lost
  5. Face To The Highway
  6. Pay Me
  7. Back In The Crowd
  8. Bad As Me
  9. Kiss Me
  10. Satisfied
  11. Last Leaf
  12. Hell Broke Luce
  13. New Year’s Eve
  14. She Stole The Blush (bonus cd only)
  15. Tell Me (bonus cd only)
  16. After You Die (bonus cd only)

16 comments:

Òscar Roig i Carrera said...

I've got questions for you, Kid... Who's birthday? What toys? Who's wife is pregnant, and by who? Where is that car? Who is good as Tom?
And bad? 25 oct OK!

Sigge said...

Thanks for updating your site man. Got home from school only to find both tomwaits.com and anti.com buckling under the pressure..

zws said...

Dearest Tom,

On the off chance you are checking in on our favorite blog, I must say, you deliver time and time again. Thank you for everything.

I have dutifully pre-ordered the deluxe edition but wish you had made the bonus tracks available with the vinyl. Oh well. Maybe next time.

I wait by my mailbox with baited breath oh and if you want to drive that car across the country I'll happily get out and help push it, if needed.

Cheers

boogiedout said...

wooohooo!

Tabla Mist said...

The downloads attached to the vinyl of glitter and doom had the bonus track from the cd edition, hopefully something like that will happen this time too. Although I can't help but admit i'm intruiged by the prospect of the 40 page sewn in booklet, oh Mr tom will have my money, so so much of my money.

The Management said...

Am I the only one who really wants that radio and record player?

Black Swede said...

Take a listen to the three samples Tom Waits plays for us during this segment.

The first two sound absolutely amazing, the third representing a simpler voodoo rock mode. Obviously, it's hard to make out which three of the album songs we just heard, but the first one is certainly "Chicago". And since "Chicago" is the first track on the album, could the other two respectively be tracks two and three, namely "Raised Right Men" and "Talking At The Same Time"?

However which way you wanna put it, the entire video is just classic stuff, right up there with the "Glitter And Doom Press Conference". I think there is a distinct possibility that the album itself could be among Waits' best work to date.

Raindog Harry said...

All this is very thrilling indeed!

Raindog Harry
(www.harrysiers.nl)

Can't wait for the album, can't wait for a new tour, can't wait for the Corbijn photobook, can't wait.

I agree with one of the other posters that this might be one of the best Waits albums. Don't know why, it just feels like it...

H.

gurdet said...

@Black Swede,
On the TomWaits.com site, Raised Right Men is classified as a "blues burner", so we cannot be hearing one, two and three...

swordfish0413 said...

Did anyone out there hear anything about who is playing the guitar on Bad As Me? Doesn´t it sound like Marc Ribot? I´m really excited about this tune an about the guitar riffs!

gurdet said...

What is it Tom says, as he picks up the phone?

Black Swede said...

Tom Waits picks up the phone and says: "early reactions" and then he puts out a satisfied smile and a welcoming purr.

Black Swede said...

This is what Rough Trade Records UK say about the LP edition of "Bad As Me": "LP comes in a single jacket with a 5mm spine that includes one 180 gram vinyl lp and a full-size 12 page book containing lyrics and photos, and cd of the whole album."

opredeleno said...

Wait now, the LP includes a CD?!

Anyways, I ordered on 23st and still not shipped. Kingsroad are on vacation maybe? I'm cooking on a slow fire in the meantime

digression said...

opredeleno: The release date is not until October. That's why it hasn't shipped yet.

Black Swede said...

I picked up another pre-release press release confirming that there will be a CD version of the album included with the LP. It states: "TOM WAITS ‘BAD AS ME’ CD / LIMITED EDITION CD / VINYL+CD / 24.10.2011."