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

Mule Variations (1999) – This is, no fooling, my single favorite album. I almost don’t want to write about it and just want to post links to every song so you can listen to them and realize how awesome they are and then we can be friends. Even the strangest songs are so heartfelt, it’s such an emotionally honest album. It feels like Waits isn’t hiding his feelings behind characters anymore, and baring his soul. Granted, that may all be a trick on his part, but that’s how it sounds.