Tom Waits – Brawlers (2xLP)

Tom Waits makes available as individual records his 2006 classic 56-song release Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards.

Brawlers is a collection of raucous blues and full-throated juke joint stomps.

The collection of 56 songs went far beyond a simple career retrospective. It dipped back as far as 1984 with the bulk of its songs hailing from the mid-'90s onward. Over two-thirds of the material had never been heard when originally released in 2006 and had 30 newly-recorded songs.

Orphans also featured a number of songs finding a home on a Waits' album for the first time. They included Waits' unique interpretations of songs by such diverse talents as The Ramones, Daniel Johnston, Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht and Leadbelly. These outtakes, rarities and the previously unreleased material were separately grouped into themes and named, Brawlers, Bawlers, and Bastards. And now these titles are released individually.

Reviews

"No contemporary musician embodies the twin virtues of elegance and piracy better than Tom Waits. He is a gravel-voiced poet, the Edwards Hopper of rock n' roll." — Bill Flanagan, CBS Sunday Morning

"Waits may call them orphans but another artist would call this a career." — The A.V. Club