Tom Waits
Swordfishtrombones
Label:  Island 
Date:  6/15/1990
Length:  0:00
Format:  CD
Genre:  Rock; Alternative
  Category:  rock
    Track Listing:
      1.  
      		 Underground    
      2.  
      		 Shore Leave    
      3.  
      		 Dave the Butcher [Instrumental]    
      4.  
      		 Johnsburg, Illinois    
      5.  
      		 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six    
      6.  
      		 Town With No Cheer    
      7.  
      		 In the Neighborhood    
      8.  
      		 Just Another Sucker on the Vine [Instrumental]    
      9.  
      		 Frank's Wild Years    
      10.  
      		 Swordfishtrombone    
      11.  
      		 Down, Down, Down    
      12.  
      		 Soldier's Things    
      13.  
      		 Gin Soaked Boy    
      14.  
      		 Trouble's Braids    
      15.  
      		 Rainbirds [Instrumental]    
    Additional info: | top

      The first album of the loose trilogy that also includes Rain Dogs and Franks Wild Years, Swordfishtrombones marked a radical departure for Waits, whose avant-garde ambitions became plain not so much in his lyrics or subject matter--the songs here deal, as do his older albums, with hard life on the wrong side of the tracks and dreams of escape and transcendence--but in the music, a sound somewhere between German cabaret music from between the wars and contemporary Manhattan rush hour. Odd time signatures, unusual instrumentation (glass harmonicas and brake drums, among others), and Waits's barked vocals make this one of his most individualistic and challenging albums. --Daniel Durchholz