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Mule Variations [VINYL] | ![Mule Variations [VINYL]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31hYMHVTQlL._SL75_.jpg)
 enlarge | Artist: Tom Waits
Label: Epitaph
Category: Music
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £15.90
You Save: £0.09 (1%)
New (9) from £15.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 17457
Media: Vinyl
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 12.2 x 12.2 x 0.4
EAN: 8714092654714
ASIN: B00004WYDB
Release Date: May 12, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: **BRAND NEW & GUARANTEED** Great service & shipped from the UK via courier. Reliable seller!!! Please allow 2 - 6 days for delivery.
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| Tracks:
| » | Big In Japan | | » | Lowside Of The Road | | » | Hold On | | » | Get Behind The Mule | | » | House Where Nobody Lives | | » | Cold Water | | » | Pony | | » | What's He Building | | » | Black Market Baby | | » | Eyeball Kid | | » | Picture In A Frame | | » | Chocolate Jesus | | » | Georgia Lee | | » | Fillipino Box Spring Hog | | » | Take It With Me | | » | Come On Up To The House |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Seven years passed between the release of Bone Machine and Mule Variations. During that time Tom Waits eschewed cutting another "conventional" (the term used loosely here) song collection, occupying his time with acting projects, a soundtrack (Night on Earth), a stage project (The Black Rider), and sundry smaller diversions. What's surprising about Mule Variations is how little he's strayed from the old Bone yard through the years. As with his Grammy-winning 1992 outing, Waits intersperses the tough and the tender, mixing exercises in creative noisemaking with tunes that fall on just the right side of maudlin. As with Bone Machine's "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me", "What's He Building?" is an experiment in word jazz that owes a debt to its creator, Ken Nordine. Waits has again assembled a crew of attuned sidemen (including Primus and steadfast backers Ralph Carney, Larry Taylor, and Joe Gore). And, as always, Waits and his wife-co-songwriter-co-producer Kathleen Brennan exhibit an uncanny ear for the arcane. In the end, Mule Variations is the aural equivalent of a salvage shop that, while largely familiar, still has a few secluded chambers and trap doors. --Steven Stolder
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Mr Waits; A Bonzai Aphrodite and Other Stories ( nevertoolate #004 ) April 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
35 years at the top of his game.
Between 1973's 'Closing Time' and the triple-whammy of 'Orphans' in 2006
Mr Waits has been resonsible for a whole lot of damned fine music
winging its' way out into this cracked and weary world of ours.
Every Waits fan will have their own favorite album.
Today mine is 'Mule Variations' (this time next year mabe it'll
be 'Small Change' again, or maybe 'Alice', or maybe....).
Released in 1999 on the Anti label this collection of sixteen
pieces seems to me to bring together everything that makes this
great maverick truly unique.
Parched, blistering rock and roll; drunken bar-room blues;
gentle heart-wringing ballads; deeply unsettling monologues.
....and stories! Always with the stories !
Painting small worlds alive with words and music has always
been his greatest gift.
Circus sideshow eccentrics; marginal paranoid loners and drifters and losers and lovers
line up to share their hopes and fears and longings.
....and stomping ! Always with the stomping !
All manner of things get thumped and slapped and crunched
( even drums sometimes ) to create the kind of rhythmic
mayhem and density of raw emotional sound which only this master
could muster. Guitarist Marc Ribot's solo on 'Cold Water' must
have stripped the paint off the ceiling.
....and suddenly it all falls away and there in the corner is
a man with a crooked hat and a broken down piano singing
a bruised and tender love song ( 'Take It With Me' ) of such hushed
intimacy that one can barely breathe until it's over.
This man and his many worlds are indivisible and precious.
 Waits and his fierce, black hounds July 11, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a warm, often sentimental lp with ramshackle (but not neccasarily minimal), homely production. It's roughly half and half piano ballads (some of his best: Picture In A Frame, Georgia Lee, Take It With Me, House Where Nobody Lives) and crackling, temple throbbing, thunder cloud blues numbers (Get Behind the Mule, Blackmarket Baby, Cold Water and the dead fly eyes of the excellent 'Low Side of the Road'). Also contains his potential weird pop hit `Big In Japan', the sinister spoken word ambience of `what's he Building?' and some great rustic compositions such as `chocolate Jesus' and the quirky redneck howler `Fillipino Box Spring Hog'. `Eyeball Kid' points the way to future compositions, featuring his distinctive `vocal percussion'. Probably his most accesible collection since Raindogs and his most succesful `current' record.
Hugely influenced by Captain Beefheart June 30, 2006
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
I love Tom Waits' music and poetry. Recently listened to Captain Beefheart's 'Trout Mask Replica' and I was struck by how much Tom is doing the same thing - even has the same voice. I guess the Captain got there first.
Brilliant and Bluesy February 11, 2005
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This is a great album form the start. I think this is a bit of a new style for Tom but he really gets into it. There are raw delta blues offerings("Cold water", "low Side of the road") beautiful hyme style ballads("C'mon up to the house", "Georgia Lee") a cinematic narration("What's he building")and "Box-spring hog" sounds like a Captain Beefheart. Don't expect "Swordfish" or "Raindogs" and I think you'll be impressed! I really like this style and hope Tom creates another in this mode.
Great Waits in all his styles! December 26, 2003
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
This great album opens with Big In Japan, a humorous number in bluesy style with brilliant guitar and innovative arrangement, which is followed by the slow, eerie Lowside Of The Road, a real hangover song with striking imagery. Hold On is a typical sad Waits ballad, which means it’s beautiful, tuneful and moving. It has an unusually light rhythm and melody though, unlike some of his other masterpiece ballads like for example In The Neighbourhood or Saving All My Love For You. House Where Nobody Lives is unique too, another gripping ballad with moving words and images. It makes me think of both Mansion On The Hill by Springsteen and the old classic Satisfied Mind. All Waits’ styles are in glorious display including the talking blues of Get Behind The Mule and the deep bluesrock of ballads like Come On Up To The House and Cold Water. For someone who prefers his ballads and his singing voice, I find both quite appealing. The next track, Pony, is another one of my favorite slow melodic numbers embellished with exquisite pump organ, dobro and harp. This album certainly lives up to its name with its astonishing variety, like the spooky spoken track What’s He Building and the story songs Black Market Baby and Eyeball Kid with its innovative samples and percussion. Waits even explores his Beefheartian side on Filipino Box Spring Hog. There’s also the gentle love song Picture In A Frame with its elegant piano and the sorrowful country song Georgia Lee. Mule Variations is a masterpiece of an album that contains impressive, timeless songs of great lyrical depth, melodic beauty and stylistic variety. Whether you like Waits as a phenomenon by himself or whether you like only certain of his styles, this album will not disappoint as it offers enough brilliance for everybody.
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