Tom Waits: Blue Valentine [ANTI-]

Why you'll love it

Anti-'s reissue is newly remastered under the supervision of Waits and Kathleen Brennan, in a gatefold jacket. Rolling Stone called it as solid a record as Waits has made.

This edition

• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Blue Valentine opens with Tom Waits taking on "Somewhere" from West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's big romantic number, and singing it like a man at the end of a very long night at a very small bar. It sets the tone for a record full of late-night characters, recorded over six sessions in July and August 1978 at Filmways/Heider in Hollywood with producer Bones Howe.

Waits switched to electric guitar for much of it, and the band is terrific: George Duke on electric grand piano (credited as Da Willie Gonga), Harold Battiste on piano, Charles Kynard on organ, Earl Palmer on drums. "Romeo Is Bleeding" is a gripping street saga, "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" is one of his most beloved story songs, and "Kentucky Avenue" is a tender trip back to childhood. "Red Shoes by the Drugstore," "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard" and "Blue Valentines" fill out the noir.

Rickie Lee Jones appears with Waits on the back cover. The liner notes, meanwhile, find room to thank the people who did the custom paint job on his Thunderbird, which tells you everything about where his priorities were, and we can't fault them.

Also at Kops: more Tom Waits on vinyl · browse Singer-Songwriter

Tracklist

Listen

On Asylum / Anti- (cat# 87570-1), a reissue of the 1978 album.