Tom Waits
Small Change

THE REVIEW

Make yourselves comfortable, take a seat, definitely order something to drink, tonight let yourselves be carried away by Mr. Tom Waits, by his poignant melodies and his adventurous companions.
This is the album that, in my opinion, best synthesizes the early Tom Waits, the one from the '70s, the one sincerely linked to beat poetry, jazz, and the piano, to bop and New Orleans, but also to whiskey which more than ever in this record makes his voice hoarse, deep, and warm (at times it even reminds one of good old Satchmo...)

The album is profoundly intimate and introspective, certainly one of the most alcohol-infused regarding its hoarse and tremendously penetrating singing, as I was saying, but at the same time very lucid in the construction of heart-wrenching melodies where his piano, the double bass, and the sax integrate perfectly.
Songs that dig into the most remote corners of the soul, that probe it, that traverse it far and wide, that scrape it down to the very bottom; stories of loves, broken hearts, betrayals, and disappointments drowned in whiskey; friendships, passions, small changes that mark a life, an existence.

The album, despite being one of the first in Tom Waits' immense discography, amazes for its great artistic maturity, like in the beautiful and poignant opening track "Tom Traubert's Blues", only to then immediately change course with "Step Right Up", the most lively track of the record, where Shelley Manne's swing-jazz drumming travels wonderfully.
In "I Wish I Was In New Orleans", the splendid "The Piano Has Been Drinking", and "Invitation To A Blues", we return to piano bar atmospheres and the specter of Louis Armstrong is increasingly imposingly present.
"Pasties and a G-String" visionary, boozy and ramshackle poetry on offbeat drumming and "The One That Got Away" are examples of how poetry and music can be close and travel on the same tracks.

Overall, a truly well-made, well-played album, of rare sensitivity and intensity, and certainly, in my opinion, ranks among the best in his immense career.