Tom Waits - return of the surreal pop

In the world where oldest clichés become latest trends, Tom Waits stands on the shoulders of giants - very few of them, actually. Being an artist nowadays attempting to forward the boundary of the predictable, the tested-n-tried stuff, it amounts to a commercial suicide, as Bjork recently discovered with her voice-driven CD ‘Medulla’.

Tom Waits has been doing his bit for the weird-beat loving gen for such a long time and ‘Real Gone’ may just be the one that’s taken him the furthest into the unknown… Hailing from Strangeville, Imago, USA*, the new album offers a wide, varied, freaky, bewildering array of tunes no-one else, but absolutely - NOBODY on the planet does.

Mr Watts refers to this music, in the press release, as “cubist funk”, and it is true but it also is far, far more. It takes in surrealism [most of the time], impressionism, Dadaism, Abstractivism, Pointilism, Post-Futurism… There is blues, reggae, cabaret, there is warped pop, deranged rock riffs, percussion replacing [trad] guitars… And, Ladies and Gentlemen, for the first time - no piano!

At certain times it sounds as if flu-up’d Frank Sinatra were fronting Nine Inch Nails, at other’s Bob Marley-on-industrial-trip, at another - Captain Beefheart and George Clinton in Dr John‘s voodoo lab… In more modern terms, imagine Nick Cave transported to the original Eisturzende Neubauten premise or, perhaps, if late Joe Strummer had been gifted such a voice-box his Mescalleros would have ended up sounding like this. All true and definitely completely false because there is only one Tom Waits.

To follow the art-worldly allegory [he started it!?], Tom Waits is Dali with the perspective towering above the Jesus’ crucifixion… From its ‘God-like’ position ‘Real Gone’ sounds like it was made in some creatively democratic country in a parallel universe where everything is possible, allowed and encouraged. [The reverse to our oppressively ordinary reality.]

At the initial spins the collection of unusual sounds, quirky instrumentation and ‘wild’ arrangements, plus the disc’s overall ambient, is like an awesome data-overload that should carry a health warning as it is not for pop-pups. This is for seasoned Alternativists, fans who can spell avant-garde without computer challenging it.

After repeated sessions a wealth of goodies is revealed to happily keep a studious listener enthralled for months. Its deconstructive approach and languorous pace, its lateral take, its gravel tonality, actual-interwoven-with-fantastic themes [Roy Orbison and Jesus of Nazareth, for instance, get mention], imagery as potent as an ace indie movie…

All sung like within the bowels of a bar run by Satan, this is informed by mind’s eye value, the way very, very few other artists can claim. ‘Real Gone’ is a unique vision of a musician who is as individual as every human should be. There are 15 tracks [plus bonus that is a voice-box extravaganza] and each is a gem in its own right: written and produced by himself and missus, Kathleen Brennan, it features their son Casey on turntables, percussion and drums on several tracks. Other guests include Les Claypool, bassist with Primus.

‘Real Gone’ [the title refers to losing yourself to a place where you can finally find yourself] is dangerously close to a masterpiece.

A chord short of full Warp speed, cap‘n!
~

* Pomona, California, actually.