Everyone’s favourite swamp blues troubadour Tom Waits has just announced that he will be releasing his new album, Bad As Me, on October 25th on ANTI Records. The album is Waits’ first album of completely original work in seven years and sees him once again working with longtime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. Showcasing the full spectrum of Waits’ songwriting, the songs touching on all the periods of his career and ranging from delicate falsetto to his trademark howling and hollering, from blues burners to ballads to avant cinematic soundscapes.
To mark the album’s release Waits has organised a ‘Private Listening Party’ where you can hear some sneak previews of the new album. Rife with his trademark theatricality and obtuse sense of humour, the snippets of the album we can hear in the clip hints that the claims made by the press release that this may be his defining work could very well be true. Hardly a stranger to the art of viral video, having posted his hilarious press conference announcing his Glitter & Doom tour back in 2008, the video is easily one of the most exciting things I’ve seen all year.
Without doubt one of the most interesting and vibrant songwriters of our age, to see him still making music of such a caliber, not to mention promoting it in such a savvy and innovative way, is both inspiring and challenging. Musicians take note as more than half a century of working in the music industry later, Waits is still setting the bar high.
