Tom Waits Week: Mule Variations and Beyond (1999-present)

Real Gone (2004) – There’s another shift with this album – Tom Waits, a pianist from the very beginning, completely eliminated the piano here. The closest thing he’s had to a comfort zone is missing here, and it makes for a massive change to the sound. Further, while Real Gone does feature traditional percussion, some of the tracks feature Tom’s vocals as percussion. It’s almost like he’s beatboxing sometimes. This doesn’t sound like anything else he’s ever recorded. This album features some of his longest songs – only six of the sixteen tracks come in at under four minutes, and three of those are only a couple of seconds short.