Tom Waits Week: Things Get Weird (1983-1993)

What can you say about an album that opens with a woodblock-heavy ditty called “Earth Died Screaming”? Other than that it should be required listening, or course. “Who Are You?” is a love song about an affair with a self-destructive woman (“I fell in love with your sailor’s mouth / and your wounded eyes”), and is fantastic. Tom actually sounds like he’s going crazy on “In the Colosseum” (“This one’s for the balcony / and this one’s for the floor / as the Senators decapitate the Presidential whore”), and Keith Richards shows up for guitar and guest vocals on “That Feel”. There’s also “Black Wings”, which holds the distinction of being a song that could be about Batman just as easily as it could be about Jesus, and “Murder in the Red Barn”, which details a small-town mystery. And “Going Out West” is a great rock number about a guy who wants to be a character actor (“I don’t need no makeup / I got real scars”), which is best known for its use in Fight Club. I apologize to any song I didn’t mention, because they’re all awesome.