LP Raspberry Beret vinyl, Limited Edition, Reissue
Anti- (2024) US
Waits' second album displays his talent for growling, jazzy beatnik tales including the track "Diamonds On My Windshield".
Expanding beyond the folk and pop stylings of his first album, "Heart of Saturday Night", Waits' second studio release, established his reputation as a versatile and distinctly American songwriter. Its bluesy jazz arrangements featured bass, drums, sax and Waits on piano. The title track, a melancholy ode to Saturday night rituals, and the tenderly romantic hymn-like "San Diego Serenade" are enduring classics covered by an array of artists from Diana Krall and Nancy Griffith to folk hero Eric Anderson and Dion. The album also features "Diamonds On My Windshield", the first of what would become a signature for Waits', the spoken word-poetry song.
Tom Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer and actor. As a vocalist, he has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz 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 pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including Down By Law and Bram Stoker's Dracula. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart.