Tom Waits has the kind of voice that might scare the hell out of you if you hear him shouting outside at 3 am under your window, but that’s just part of his towering talent and dark charm. Bad As Me (ANTI-Records) is more than an album; it’s an all-engrossing psychological event.

It’s often said that part of the power of certain artists be they dancers or painters is that they make it look easy. Not the case with Waits: His songs sound like good, healthy hard work. A vivid hybrid of jazz, blues, vaudeville, ragtime and Waits, his songwriting has a rough-and-tumble plainspoken genius a body can’t ignore which partially accounts for his devoted cult following.

The need to cut losses and hopefully grittily move forward seems to be at the heart of “Chicago.” The driving beat and harmonica doubling as a boarding train whistle with Waits as conductor underscores the theme of moving forward, forward and forward in full barbecued gravel vocal mode. When it comes to a song that defines what a woman wants and needs to really feel secure, “Raised Right Men” nails it and kills it with its brooding razor focus. No question, as Waits sings, “It takes a raised right man to make a happy hen,” even if you’re not the wife of a late-nineteent/ early twentieth-century American gangster.

Waits is a consummate communicator and the title track for “Bad As Me” conveys the gleeful joy of finding a romantic partner in crime. He’s far frmo immune to the charms of the less-than-savory here as evidenced by the line “No good, you say?/Well that’s good enough for me.” He goes for softer but no less intense on “Kiss Me,” about an aching for longtime love to feel new and unfamiliar again. The union of delicate strumming and jazz piano against Waits’ gristle-over-bone rasp is not to be missed.

5 / 5 bars

Tom Waits – Back In The Crowd by antirecords

Tom Waits – Bad As Me by antirecords

Tom Waits – Kiss Me by OneMoreCupOfCoffee