TOM WAITS: WORST TO BEST

After months of listening to the discography of one of the most legendary singer-songwriters of all time, watching interviews, reading discography guides and reviews, I have decided to draw together a guide to what I believe are his best and worst albums.

Before I start, I want to assert that this is a thread intended to read as appreciation for an artist I have come to really love. Any negative words I write about albums or songs must be read with this in mind.

If you disagree with any placements or assessments, please remember this is for fun. Feel free to reply contesting my opinion, I’d love a healthy debate but remember, Tom has an extremely varied and often divisive catalog of music - it’s natural for people to disagree on this.

So, let’s begin...

18. Small Change (1976)

17. The Black Rider (1993)

16. Heartattack & Vine (1980)

15. Bad As Me (2011)

14. Foreign Affairs (1977)

13. Frank’s Wild Years (1987)

12. Closing Time (1973)

11. Blue Valentine (1978)

10. Alice (2002)

Halfway through now so gonna take a break. You guys can sit with this bottom 9 for a bit before I get to the REALLY good stuff...

9. The Heart of Saturday Night (1974)

8. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006)

7. Swordfishtrombones (1983)

6. Nighthawks at the Diner (1975)

Another quick break, have to do some work (lol), but then we move into my top 5!

Made a mistake twice uploading no. 5 & 4

5. Mule Variations (1999)

4. Blood Money (2002)

Top 3 is on the way...

3. Rain Dogs (1985)

2. Real Gone (2004)

(Upon writing this, I’d actually only heard the 2017 ‘remixed’ version, and yesterday, having been made aware of this, I scrambled to listen to the original and found that everything I’d loved about the album already was amplified, so I wrote it an even more glowing review )

But what this means is...in my opinion the best Tom Waits album (which most of you will have already worked out by process of elimination) is.....

BONE MACHINE

Write up to follow...