Tom Waits - Mule Variations / vinyl 2LP set

Tom Waits’ 12th studio album and most commercially successful work since 1985’s Rain Dogs sounds like a front-porch jam session on a sweaty night in the Delta that also sees Captain Beefheart and Harold Arlen drop on by for a visit. The vocalist’s ability to sell more than a million copies of a double album that spans the expanse of American popular music all the way to early 20th-century German avant-garde epitomizes his genius.

Mule Variations opens with the industrial-tinged screamer “Big in Japan” and the dirge “Low Side of the Road.” In many ways, both tracks function as an aural tip of the hat to the iron, gravel, and distortion style exemplified by 1992’s Bone Machine and 1993’s The Black Rider. Waits then slides into the wistful “Hold On,” a song that stands up with his other masterful ballads like “Jersey Girl” and “Downtown Train.” Indeed, one of the secrets behind Mule Variations’ appeal pertains to its ability to appeal to fans of every phase of the singer’s varied career. Cynics who revel in “Chocolate Jesus” will probably be just as likely to join romantics who love the melodic, late-night reflection “Take It with Me.” The album ends with the rousing, all-together-now chorus of “Come on Up to the House.” For fans of American roots music, Mule Variations is church.

https://vinylreviews.com/album/mule-variations/