Tom Waits

Tom Waits: Blood MoneyBlood Money (2002)
Anti- Records

Reviewer Rating: 4

User Rating:

Contributed by: DaveidDaveid
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Published on December 10th 2004Perhaps an explanation is in order before any reviewing is done. Blood Money was released simultaneously with another album, Alice. These albums are the score to a remake of "Woyzeck," a play written in 1837 which was (to quote the biography on Anti-) "inspired by the true story of a German sold.

Perhaps an explanation is in order before any reviewing is done.

Blood Money was released simultaneously with another album, Alice. These albums are the score to a remake of "Woyzeck," a play written in 1837 which was (to quote the biography on Anti-) "inspired by the true story of a German soldier who was driven mad by bizarre army medical experiments and infidelity, which led him to murder his lover." The play premiered in November 2000 and won some awards and blah blah blah, I'm sure you all really care. Anyways, they wrote the score but there were never any recordings of it, so Waits took it upon himself to do it.

What does it sound like, you ask? Well, I'd have to say it's a combination of blues, rock, and folk, with some real circus-sounding shit thrown in for good measure. I see it described as "Tin-pan-alley" quite often, and that sounds about right. The instrumenation is pretty diverse, ranging from a Calliope (hence the circus music comparison), to piano (and lots of it), to the seed pod of a Botang Tree. Let's not forget Waits' voice, which has just gotten more gravelly over time, to the point where you can't help but wonder how he manages to do it and not completely destroy his vocal chords.

It would be difficult for me to pick a favorite song from the thirteen tracks on here. There are lots of great ones, such as the opening track "Misery Is The River Of The World," "God's Away On Business," and the instrumental "Knife Chase." Some of the slower songs aren't exactly my cup of tea ("Coney Island Baby," "Woe"), but there aren't any really bad tracks on here at all, and even after several months I still find myself listening to this fairly often.

MP3
Another Man's Vine

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Dayspring (June 10, 2009)

Only this record is the "soundtrack" Woyzeck.

Alice is the "soundtrack" to another play entirely

TR (April 10, 2008)

Best man alive.

TheMike (September 23, 2007)

Personally, I am a little more fond of the slower songs. But the whole album is really good.

pinkerton (December 21, 2006)

while i agree with the positive points about "blood money" found in the review, i find that the best tracks are slower tunes like coney island baby. if you really listen to the ballads, the band is still playing really hard. everything is really tight (drums, bass, piano, etc), and it almost sounds like an old 45 slowed down...its that precise.

i guess i just appreciate a good slow tune every now and again, but the heavier stuff on the record is great too....thus this album is really great.

Anonymous (December 15, 2004)

Pavement sucks soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fucking bad!

Anonymous (December 15, 2004)

I rape sheep.

-Chinatown

Anonymous (December 15, 2004)

"The Ramones were awful."

the Ramones were not awful. indie nerds love the Ramones, guess you missed the memo dude.

manifesto (December 14, 2004)

Tom Waits' the man! I consider this album to be his second best after Real Gone. "God's Away on Business", "Another Man's Vine" and "Starving in the Belly of a Whale" are simply amazing songs. All in all, Blood Money is a masterpiece as every other Waits' albums.

Anonymous (December 14, 2004)

The Ramones were awful.

-Chinatown

Anonymous (December 13, 2004)

that post was sooooooo punk.

Anonymous (December 13, 2004)

avril, corporate whore, songs about boys, hmm... no i do not believe she is of the punk mindset. she is probably closer to what many would consider the "punk sound," because that's what she was tailored to fit. but since there is no real punk sound (many say velvet underground was one of the first "punk" bands, and they're probably closer to waits than the ramones) and punk is a frame of mind, it's fairly clear that avril is not in that frame of mind.

I could say the same aboutThe Ramones and the Sex Pistols, they were just as much corprate whores as Avril. They totally exploited the diy scene to make money, while bands like crass(at the time, they too got pretty rich) were living it up the diy punk way. Don't try and analyze, it's pointless. I remeber when i was once like you, and i would question whats punk or not. Just forget about all, live the way you want and regard it as a genre, because that is all it is. A genre with really dumb fashion and a lot of hypocrites.

Anonymous (December 13, 2004)

it's funny seeing someone who knows nothing about tom waits try and review his music. score is for the album.

Anonymous (December 13, 2004)

I'll listen to Tom Waits over what most of you call "punk" any day of the fucking week.