Waits, Tom - Swordfishtrombones LP

Swordfishtrombones has none of the strings and much less of the piano work that Waits' previous albums had employed; instead, the dominant sounds on the record were low-pitched horns, bass instruments, and percussion, set in spare, close-miked arrangements (most of them by Waits) that sometimes were better described as "soundscapes." Lyrically, Waits' tales of the drunken and the lovelorn have been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of Australian towns bypassed by the railroad -- a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits now have his attention. The music can be primitive, moving to odd time signatures, while Waits alternately howls and wheezes in his gravelly bass voice. 

•  Underground
•  Shore Leave
•  Dave the Butcher [Instrumental]
•  Johnsburg, Illinois
•  16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six
•  Town with No Cheer
•  In the Neighborhood
•  Just Another Sucker on the Vine [Instrumental]
•  Frank's Wild Years
•  Swordfishtrombone
•  Down, Down, Down
•  Soldier's Things
•  Gin Soaked Boy
•  Trouble's Braids
•  Rainbirds [Instrumental]