Closing Time - Tom Waits

Tom Waits’ debut album “Closing Time” was released in March 1973. Waits’ gravely voice is instantly recognizable and was once described by a critic as sounding “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months and then taken outside and run over with a car.” With this trademark growl, his incorporation of a mish-mash of styles including blues, jazz, and Vaudeville, and his openess to experimentation, Waits has built up a unique and distinctive musical persona. Lyrically, Waits’ songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. His influence on other songwriters, despite having little radio or music video support himself, has meant that his songs are better known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more prominent artists, eg. “Jersey Girl” performed by Bruce Springsteen; “Downtown Train” performed by Rod Stewart; actress Scarlett Johansson’s 2008 debut album “Anywhere I Lay My Head” predominantly featuring covers of Waits’ songs; and “Ol’ ‘55” performed by the Eagles but present in its original glorious form on “Closing Time”.

“Ol’ ‘55”, one of the album’s finest tracks, is about driving down the freeway in the early morning in a state of post-coital euphoria. Just as compelling is the ballad “I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You”, a story about meeting eyes with a girl in a bar and aching to ask her out, but ultimately being too shy. “Lonely” is what it is. “Martha” is perhaps the most poignant song on the album, a simple piano ballad about lost love and written when Waits was only 19 years old. “Closing Time” received good reviews on its release, but overall it was not a huge commercial success. However, it did reach a wider audience through a number of cover versions by more successful artists. Later in 1973 Tim Buckley released his album “Sefronia” which contained a cover of “Martha” , the first ever cover of a Tom Waits song by a known artist. This cover was also collected in the 1995 compilation “Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits”. The Eagles’ cover of “Ol’ ‘55” was a big hit for them and it featured on their 1974 album “On the Border”.

Tom Waits has composed for a number of movies and musical plays including the soundtrack of the film “Shrek 2”, in which he also appears in a shared role with Nick Cave as a piano-playing Captain Hook singing the track “A Little Drop Of Poison”.

1. “Ol’ ‘55”
2. “I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You”
3. “Virginia Avenue”
4. “Old Shoes (& Picture Postcards)”
5. “Midnight Lullaby”
6. “Martha”
7. “Rosie”
8. “Lonely”
9. “Ice Cream Man”
10. “Little Trip to Heaven (On the Wings of Your Love)”
11. “Grapefruit Moon”
12. “Closing Time” (instrumental)

Let It Bleed - The Rolling Stones

Released in 1969 Let It Bleed was a musical stepping stone between the Bluesy sound of Beggars Banquet and The Rolling Stones standard rock sound on Sticky Fingers.

Brian Jones, the Stones founding member, died while the album was being recorded and only performs on two tracks, You Got The Silver and Midnight Rambler.
Let It Bleed opens with the classic, apocalyptic, Gimme Shelter, which surprisingly was never released as a single. Jagger called it an "end of the world song" clearly evidenced in the lyrics.
"Oh, a storm is threatening, My very life today; If I don't get some shelter, Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away"
"War, children, it's just a shot away, It's just a shot away; War, children, it's just a shot away, It's just a shot away"
Although they had had a hit with Honky Tonk Woman, they chose to leave it off the album and instead recorded an alter ego for the single Country Honk. This was also the album where Keith Richards performed his first solo vocal lead on You Got The Silver.
Other highlights include the drugtastic Monkey Man, which features on the Goodfellas soundtrack, and the title track Let It Bleed.
Closing the Album is yet another classic, You Can't Always Get What You Want

Written on the inner sleeve of the original album is a simple message "This record must be played loud" Turn up the volume, Let It Bleed is Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track listing
1. Gimme Shelter
2. Love In Vain
3. Country Honk
4. Live With Me
5. Let It Bleed
6. Midnight Rambler
7. You Got The Silver
8. Monkey Man
9. You Can't Always Get What You Want

Hounds Of Love - Kate Bush

Hounds of Love, Kate Bush's 1985 album was her most commercially successful to date. That is not to say it isn't packed full of kate's eccentricities but it has also some of her finest pop moments to boot.

The album was produced by Bush in her own 24 track studio. She split the album into two parts. The first half had her accessible pop tracks the second showing her more adventurous side.

The first single to be released was Running Up That Hill. Apparently Kate is singing about men and women and how we can never really understand each other (I think she is on to something). The song was originally just titled Deal With God, but Kate was warned that if the title remained it wouldn't be played in any religious countries, like Ireland! The video was a dance number that even had a weird pre curser to being John Malcovich where Kate Bush gets swept down a corridor by a stream of people wearing Kate Bush masks, even weirder still MTV never played it, preferring a live performance of the song to the video.

The second single taken from the album was the wonderful Cloudbusting. Written about the relationship between a father and son in this case controversial psychologist Wilhelm reich's arrest as seen through the eyes of his son.

Hounds of Love was the third single and was yet another commercial and critical success for Kate. It is actually my favorite from the album too.

The second side of Hounds of Love is a concept suite of songs called the Ninth Wave. It seems to be about a young woman who is terminally ill, and has repeated hallucinations. The critical success of hounds of love was further proof of the huge talent that is Kate Bush. The singles released from the album are still mainstream radio staples which is testament to the craft and originality of the album.

Track Listsing

1. "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" – 5:03
2. "Hounds of Love" – 3:02
3. "The Big Sky" – 4:41
4. "Mother Stands for Comfort" – 3:07
5. "Cloudbusting" – 5:10

The Ninth Wave

6. "And Dream of Sheep" – 2:45
7. "Under Ice" – 2:21
8. "Waking the Witch" – 4:18
9. "Watching You Without Me" – 4:06
10. "Jig of Life" – 4:04
11. "Hello Earth" – 6:13
12. "The Morning Fog" – 2:34

The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill - Lauryn Hill