Tom Waits: Franks Wild Years (180g, remastered) [USM]

Why you'll love it

This 180g reissue was newly remastered with Waits and Kathleen Brennan from the original production master tape, in a gatefold jacket that reproduces the original. NME critics placed it fifth among the albums of 1987, and Elvis Costello lists it among his essential records.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered from the original production master tape
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in the EU
• Stereo mix

About the album

Tom Waits subtitled this one Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts, and he wasn't joking. The songs come from a play he wrote with his wife and collaborator Kathleen Brennan, which the Steppenwolf Theatre Company premiered in Chicago in June 1986, and the album completes the loose trilogy that began with Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs. Our hero is Frank, last seen driving north on the Hollywood Freeway after torching his house, now chasing fame all the way to Vegas.

The sound is gloriously odd: pump organ, marimba, baritone horn, accordion and Optigan, with Marc Ribot's guitar and David Hidalgo's accordion in the band. "Hang On St. Christopher" stomps, "Temptation" slinks, and "Straight to the Top" turns up twice, once as a demented rhumba and once as a Vegas swing number. "Way Down in the Hole" later became the theme for The Wire.

Diana Krall covered "Temptation" in 2004 on The Girl in the Other Room. Frank's journey ends with "Innocent When You Dream (78)," in a tinny, nostalgic rendition, as if he packed a gramophone for the trip. Very sensible of him.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Island / UMe, a reissue of the 1987 album.