Iconic and incorrigible musician Tom Waits is simply badass on his seventeenth album, Bad As Me. The 2011 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, now in his 60’s, partners with longtime collaborators – many of them key players on 1985’s Rain Dogs, a seminal record in the development of Waits’ experimental sound – including co-writer/producer (and wife) Kathleen Brennan, Marc Ribot (guitar), Keith Richards – yes, that Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), and Charlie Musselwhite (electric blues harmonica). The thirteen tracks (plus 3 on the deluxe limited edition) are quintessential Waits, bearing such eclecticism and mastery that he forges his own genre featuring downtrodden yet simmering ballads, rockabilly scorchers, piano driven blues, and even touches of gospel (with organ as exclamation points on “Raised Right Men”), all of which is bound by his distinctly husky and seductively expressive vocals. Bad As Me is another winning notch on Waits’ belt. – Written by JFelton
SIMILAR | Leonard Cohen, Grinderman, Man Man, Morphine, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Lou Reed