29 in 2009 - Tom Waits: "Rain Dogs"

Tom Waits:  Rain Dogs

Originally Released:  September 30, 1985

Genres: Rock, Folk, Avant Garde

Rating: 6 out of 10

Hey, the rest of the world may be a few weeks into 2010, but it's still 2009 here at Audio Overflow!  Just two more albums to get through and then I can wash my hands clean of this long-winded series and maybe get a chance to post a "Best of the Decade" list or a review of a new album.  But first, there's Rain Dogs.

Truth be told, I've been listening to this album since the last few weeks of 2009.  It's a tough one to get through, what, with 19 tracks, all of which are teetering on the line of the "weirdest shit I've ever heard" classification.  Tom Waits is a weird dude, and if this album is any indication, a pretty messed up one at that.  Rain Dogs sounds like nothing else I've heard in my life; like something I would hear playing out of a New Orleans voodoo shop or soundtracking a really demented Don Bluth film.  He paints a very vivid picture of desolation, despair, and filth through the tales told on this album.  While impressive in that regard, musically, this album just doesn't do it for me.

Not even a little bit.  Rain Dogs came off as a lesson in tedium rather than a legitimate musical expression.  I'm not familiar with Wait's other music, but the album sounds more like blatant experimentation.  Like I said, the album's nothing to scoff at, and I suppose it's quite impressive if taken at face value.  But listening to this album was a chore.  That's part of the reason that it took me so long to write this simple, short article on it. 

I have nothing else to say, really.  Waits is a talented guy, but Rain Dogs is just an album that I could never get into and will probably never listen to again.  Bring on the Beach Boys!

Verdict:  Tedious