WAITS,TOM – SWORDFISHTROMBONES (YELLOW VINYL) - LP •

WAITS,TOM – SWORDFISHTROMBONES (YELLOW VINYL) - LP •UPC: 602455886477 Label: ISLAND Format: LP Release Date: October 6, 2023 In stock items ship within 48 hours 2023 Marks forty years since Tom Waits released Swordfishtrombones, ushering in a new and critically acclaimed musical era for Waits and his longtime songwriting and production partner, Brennan. Waits went from 70s era bluesy, boozy wordsmith and melodist with seven albums behind him to sound sculptor, miner of the subconscious, abstract

UPC: 602455886477
Label: ISLAND
Format: LP
Release Date: October 6, 2023
In stock items ship within 48 hours

2023 Marks forty years since Tom Waits released Swordfishtrombones, ushering in a new and critically acclaimed musical era for Waits and his longtime songwriting and production partner, Brennan. Waits went from ‘70’s-era “bluesy, boozy” wordsmith and melodist with seven albums behind him to sound sculptor, miner of the subconscious, abstract orchestrator, sonic cubist—while retaining his innate lyricism, melodic invention, humanity. As he put it in a 1983 interview: “I tried to listen to the noise in my head and invent some junkyard orchestral deviation—a mutant apparatus to drive this noise into a wreck collection.” It’s a Waits-arranged pastiche, a variety of atmospheres from different sound planets. There is the warped, marching-army-ants music of “Underground,” an impressionist chant about people living below cities, but there was also the poignancy of the spare piano ballad, “Soldier’s Things,” the good bar yarn, “Frank’s Wild Years”, the tender, minimalist paean to Waits’ wife and muse, Kathleen, “Johnsburg, Illinois,” and the raggedy anthem to neighborhood chaos, “In the Neighborhood.”

“On Swordfishtrombones, Waits has made a breakthrough – he’s found music as evocative as his words. Waits’s grumble of a voice now bounces off a peculiar assortment of horns and percussion and organ and keyboards, as if he’d led a Salvation Army band into a broken-down Hong Kong disco. It’s as if he’s shifted from monologues to screenplays…” - Jon Parales January 1984 - GQ Magazine

The album is newly remastered for the first time ever from the original EQ’ed ½” production master tape and personally overseen by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan. Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits’ longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler. The album packaging has also been restored. Available on exclusive limited edition 180g canary vinyl.

Tracklist

A1. Underground 
A2. Shore Leave 
A3. Dave The Butcher 
A4. Johnsburg, Illinois 
A5. 16 Shells From A 30.6 
A6. Town With No Cheer 
A7. In The Neighbourhood 
B1. Just Another Sucker On The Vine 
B2. Frank's Wild Years 
B3. Swordfishtrombone 
B4. Down, Down, Down 
B5. Soldier's Things 
B6. Gin Soaked Boy 
B7. Trouble's Braids 
B8. Rainbirds