Pawnbroker's Wife, the

All out twisted white trash ballads and waltzes, not afraid of anything. Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Captain Beefheart. This is the record that I wish Waits would have made already in the last 15 years (instead of rehashing himself ad boredeum). Discordant melodies and guitar, sick percussion. Mostly male vocs, but fem duets and backs. This guy didn’t start releasing music until after he was 40 (ref. New Yorker). Super advanced stuff. Check out the cover of Jingle Bells if anything. Become and alcoholic and have a divorce or two and you’ll probably relate to this. No naive white boy hipster poseurs allowed. Pah on Waits’ upper class Sonoma County lifestyle. This is a dose of reality. No posturing or role playing. The best.

1) ¾ love song, male+fem duet, trad feel, brief
2) bent distorto bass over junky perc, twisted vocs, white trash epic ode
3) more straight, still twisted Capt Beefhrt feel, super cool guitar
4) fucked up waltz, waaay fucked up
5) more minimal, still strange, voc treatments, ballad-like
6) almost lilting pop melodic feel, but noooo….
7) dirty as hell guitar, surfy rhumba “tequila” feel, classic
8) Jingle Bells: yes, jingle bells, like you’ve never heard before, funky bottom heavy w/ fem vocs in front
9) another great XXXmas theme: western feel dark dark anti-love anti-marriage song “now were sleeping in separate beds” d-I-v-o-r-c-e
10) rambunctious rolling rocking tom tom heavy, another anti-love song
11) tom tom heavy Waits percussion but super cool w/o Waits’ triteness
12) upbeat swingy retro rock, almost “new garage”, swampy
13) ballad, waltz, fem vocs, acous feel
14) Lee Hazelwood song: dreamy and trippy and beyond belief, super cool classic ending a masterpiece of a cd