-
10.0
33899
10.0 |
The Irish Times
The bawlers are wonderful, the brawlers full of muscle and mystery – and even the bastards have their place
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10.0
33901
10.0 |
The Independent
He strolls assuredly across the landscape of American music, turning his hand with equal facility to an extraordinary range of styles, and managing to invent one or two of his own along the way
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10.0
33810
10.0 |
Clash
A work of pure, true genius
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10.0
33926
10.0 |
Daily Telegraph
He has raided the junkyard for scraps of blues, soul, vaudeville, saloon balladry and early rock’n’roll and cranked them up into an unstoppable demolition derby of songs stripped to their essential parts
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-
10.0
34012
10.0 |
The Skinny
Tom Waits' music does what all great art should, it creates worlds
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9.1
34063
9.1 |
A.V. Club
This is entry-level Waits for newcomers, and for longtime fans it’s a fun reminder of Waits’ ability to be a badass when necessary
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9.0
34068
9.0 |
Rave Magazine
One of the best albums of the year
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9.0
34023
9.0 |
Consequence Of Sound
Bad As Me begins on a train and ends in a bar on New Year’s Eve. I’ll gladly take that journey with Tom Waits every time
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9.0
34038
9.0 |
Drowned In Sound
Bad As Me sees the performer reaching back into his bag of tricks to pull out a few favourites in a characteristically exhilarating, terrifying, heartbreaking, tear jerking, bone-rattling style
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9.0
34041
9.0 |
No Ripcord
It's Waits' best album since Rain Dogs, and may possibly be even better than that
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9.0
34407
9.0 |
Tiny Mix Tapes
[Brings] together the oddball sideman and the sappy balladeer over a pile of songs that seem so effortless that they couldn’t possibly have come from anyone else
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9.0
34492
9.0 |
Blurt
Co-written and produced by his missus Kathleen Brennan, Waits' songs - Bad as Me included - find their center immediately and stick like a record's skip
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9.0
33976
9.0 |
musicOMH
Tom Waits has nothing left to prove. The fact that he can produce an album like Bad As Me, with more energy, invention and sheer excitement that artists half his age stands as testimony that Tom Waits remains one of the true giants of music
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8.8
34017
8.8 |
Beats Per Minute
Unlike so many elder statesmen who reach a point of clear decline, Waits has seemingly yet to come anywhere near that point
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8.5
34842
8.5 |
Prefix
Throughout it all, it still feels like essential, singular Waits, like moody and manic are two sides of one very marked coin
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8.5
35361
8.5 |
FasterLouder
Bad As Me grabs you by the lapel, pulls you down into the gutter and rolls around with you, leaving you wanting more
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8.5
33994
8.5 |
Uncut
Bad As Me is the sound of a supremely confident artist convening a raucous celebration of his own myth, and is multifariously marvellous
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-
8.5
33927
8.5 |
The Quietus
A nimble, playful little album that ranks among his very best. A truly timeless artist, still at the peak of his powers
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8.3
33995
8.3 |
Paste Magazine
As good as anything Waits has ever done
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8.1
33982
8.1 |
Pitchfork
These tracks are concise and expertly edited, and Bad as Me feels as new as it does ancient
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-
8.0
33989
8.0 |
Slant Magazine
It's great to see him in such boastful, ebullient form, even if the album's structure hews to a familiar city-mouse/country-mouse dialectic, staggered between his usual stable of "brawlers" and "bawlers"
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8.0
33998
8.0 |
The Observer
Bad As Me is, chiefly, an album full of compassion, anger and sorrow...Its 13 tracks fairly rip along, alerting a new generation that there are few as fine as Waits
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8.0
33939
8.0 |
The Fly
Occasional light touches of chiming guitar-led jazz and balladry leaven the atmosphere, but those are mere interludes in a typically destructive work
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8.0
33851
8.0 |
BBC
Mostly finds Waits roaming his property, repainting the fence instead of jumping over it into the next uncharted field. But while this isn’t a great album it’s still a very good one
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8.0
33903
8.0 |
The Guardian
Demented New Orleans and Depression-era blues, Elvis-type tearjerkers, accordion laments, rollicking Birthday Party punk and madcap T Rex distortions of rock'n'roll
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8.0
33907
8.0 |
Evening Standard
There are some great moments
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8.0
33488
8.0 |
Spin
It feels like rocking fast and getting to the point never even occurred to Tom Waits before now
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8.0
33492
8.0 |
Uncut
The sound of a supremely confident artist convening a raucous celebration of his own myth, and is multifariously marvellous. Print edition only
-
8.0
33496
8.0 |
Q
As accessible as it is intelligent. At their heart, these are classic pop songs. Print edition only
-
8.0
33498
8.0 |
Mojo
There is enough on Bad As Me to suggest that Waits has reapplied a rigour to his songwriting not always apparent in recent years. Print edition only
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8.0
35597
8.0 |
State
All in all, if you like Tom Waits, you’ll love Bad As Me
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-
8.0
34638
8.0 |
Under The Radar
Waits’ most accessible record in decades; essential not only to his hooked fanbase, but to the uninitiated masses
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-
8.0
34409
8.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit
Bad as Me is the man’s best work since Mule Variations, and yet another fantastic Tom Waits album
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-
8.0
34055
8.0 |
The Scotsman
Bad As Me unleashes a visceral world of sound
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8.0
34093
8.0 |
PopMatters
A bracing, defiant attack against things as usual. Its clash and clatter are combative, but in the end -- and here's what throws the suits off -- utterly beautiful
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8.0
34101
8.0 |
Rolling Stone
It doesn't get much better than this
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7.5
34157
7.5 |
Pretty Much Amazing
13 barroom stompers
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-
6.0
34225
6.0 |
NME
Has to rank as a disappointment, since their are no surprises to match Real Gone's sepulchral funk or Orphans' breathtaking sweep. Print edition only
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