#45 Bone Machine

Trying out a new format that works as a cheat sheet to the review. Of course the "Best Song" will stay, but in addition I am including the whole track list. On this list I will make the stand out tracks red and the tracks that are stinkers (to be demonstrated on later albums cause this one doesn't have any) blue. As always I will try and link to audio files/YouTube videos of songs I mention if I can find any. Well, enough of this. On to the review!!!

Best Song: Dirt in the Ground

Track List:
1.) Earth Died Screaming
2.) Dirt in the Ground
3.) Such a Scream
4.) All Stripped Down
5.) Who Are You
6.) The Ocean Doesn't Want Me
7.) Jesus Gonna Be Here
8.) A Little Rain
9.) In the Colosseum
10.) Goin' Out West
11.) Murder in the Red Barn
12.) Black Wings
13.) Whistle Down the Wind
14.) I Don't Wanna Grow Up
15.) Let Me Get Up on It
16.) That Feel

Tom Waits is fantastic. Just have to get that out of the way. Once you adjust to his voice and unusual use of percussion and musical tropes from the 30s you will like just about anything he does to some degree. Now Bone Machine isn’t my favorite Waits album but it is the one that I listened to first. I am not going to lie, if you aren’t already a Waits fan it will take some time to get into. This is not an easy album to assimilate; how could it be considering it is THE album about death.

The opener “Earth Died Screaming” is a great indication of what a wild ride you have signed up for. The percussion sounds like rattling bones and the growl used on the song is Waits at his most primal. “Dirt in the Ground” is my personal favorite and has Waits adopting a lamenting falsetto over subtle, and I mean subtle instrumentation. You won’t notice the bells, or the tapping unless you are really listening for it.

“Who Are You” is a sorrowful ballad that can’t be beat and always makes me think of a person looking out at the ocean while on the edge of a cliff during sunset; which works well with the next song “The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me Today”. Now this song is creepy… no not creepy, that is too nice. Terrifying is more appropriate. Try listening to it in the dark with good headphones so it sound like it is coming from your own mind.

“In the Colosseum” is another growling song along the line of “Earth Died Screaming” just as good but more ethereal than earthy which is appropriate. “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” (which was later cover by The Ramones) is a perversion of juvenile acoustic tunes and as such becomes a real highlight. There really are no bad songs on the entire album but there are sixteen songs. That makes it hard to talk about all of them with out rambling. This is the album that introduced me to Tom Waits and I would suggest it as one of two albums as a gateways, probably the more difficult one, into the Waits’ work. What is the other one? Well we will just have to wait and see won’t we.

#46 Really Rosie

Best Song: One was Johnny

The greatest thing Carole King ever did. Now this is a pretty bold statement seeing as Tapestry is one of the most celebrated albums of the singer songwriter movement. Am I really saying it isn’t as good as a children’s album…well of course I am.

Really Rosie is a musical based on the work of Maurice Sendak, who also provides the lyrics. This is really important to note, Carole King DID NOT write the lyrics. Why do I feel the need to stress this? Well, like I said this is a children’s album and King could have easily gotten away with writing trivial and cliché melodies and no one would have noticed or cared. But instead she wrote some truly inspired music to accompany some great story lyrics.

King’s vocal delivery reaches a level of passion and, on some tracks, frenzy that she could only hope to reach on any of her other albums. Screaming and Yelling (could only find a clip online? really?) wouldn’t seem out of place on any other of King’s albums and would be a highlight where ever it showed up. The Ballad of Chicken Soup is a dark song about choking on a chicken bone that has the only line on the entire album that I feel is out of place. “quicker than a winky” just does not work with the tone of the song.

My absolute favorite is the song One Was Johnny. It is one of the shortest but that only works to its advantage. It is a simple count to ten then count backwards concept but the lyrical flow and walking piano really works. Drum fill and funky bass signal the bridge continue to the end bring the song to fruition. Pierre should also not be missed and even though One Was Johnny is my favorite song the end of Pierre represents my favorite moment on the whole record.