Bad As Me

Tom Waits falls into an elite group: pioneering cult heroes whose "alternative" icon status goes back a good few decades, who've reinvented themselves at least once or twice, but have been basically working variations on the same template through the latter half of their career. Nick Lowe, Richard Thompson, and Los Lobos all come to mind as members of the club; they keep creating high-quality work, but after you've been swinging your hammer a certain amount of time, how do you keep finding new things to hit with it? And how much does it matter? Having crafted more convention-shattering sounds than all the aforementioned artists put together, should Waits get a free pass from any further envelope-pushing? If Bad As Me is the basis for judgment, the answer is yes. He's already burrowed deep into such a singular world that Deerhunter and Tune-Yards may never be able to catch up in the idiosyncrasy stakes, and from the power tools and primal percussion of "Hell Broke Luce" to the Mexicali moan of "Back in the Crowd" and the jazz-from-the-gutter ballad "Kiss Me," he's still machete-sharp. Will he ever shock us again like he did on Swordfishtrombones or Bone Machine? Probably not, but after spending so many Halloweens with us, there's nothing wrong with Waits choosing treats over tricks at this point.