331: MULE VARIATIONS | TOM WAIT

Erika Crichton of Bellingham, WA writes: My first experience with Tom Waits music was during college when I worked at a second-run movie theater called the Roxy. The manager of the theater, Neil, gave my Frank's Wild Years as a holiday gift. I. Was. Amazed. The CD became my college soundtrack, made me feel super musically astute and 'off beat', and also gave me permission to judge people who didn't like his music as having undeveloped taste. Oh, youth. So judgy!
Since that introduction to his music I have remained a serious fan. I recently put Mule Variations on and listened straight through. It remains one of my favorite Waits albums. 'Filipino Box Spring Hog' had me nodding in time to the rhythm. I greatly enjoyed being able to recite along with parts of 'What's He Building in There?'--"he use to have a consulting business in IndonEEEsia...". So good! But my favorite track is 'Take it With Me'. It is a song that for me evokes both love lost and the realization that future loves--not yet known--could also end. It's simply brilliant. So while I can't deny that Frank's Wild Years will always hold a special place in my musical love life, Mule Variations is equally important and forever appreciated and applauded.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic: Tom Waits grew steadily less prolific after redefining himself as a junkyard noise poet with Swordfishtrombones, but the five-year wait between The Black Rider and 1999's Mule Variations was the longest yet. Given the fact that Waits decided to abandon major labels for the California indie Epitaph, Mule Variations would seem like a golden opportunity to redefine himself and begin a new phase of his career. However, it plays like a revue of highlights from every album he's made since Swordfishtrombones. Of course, that's hardly a criticism; the album uses the ragged cacophony of Bone Machine as a starting point, and proceeds to bring in the songwriterly aspects of Rain Dogs, along with its affection for backstreet and backwoods blues, plus a hint of the beatnik qualities of Swordfish. So Mule Variations delivers what fans want, in terms of both songs and sonics. But that also explains why it sounds terrific on initial spins, only to reveal itself as slightly dissatisfying with subsequent plays. All of Waits' Island records felt like fully conceived albums with genuine themes. Mule Variations, in contrast, is a collection of moments, and while each of those moments is very good (some even bordering on excellent), ultimately the whole doesn't equal the sum of its parts. While that may seem like nitpicking, some may have wanted a masterpiece after five years, and Mule Variations falls short of that mark. Nevertheless, this is a hell of a record by any other standard. Waits is still writing terrific songs and matching them with wildly evocative productions; furthermore, it's his lightest record in years -- it's actually fun to listen to, even with a murder ballad here and a psycho blues there. In that sense, it's a unique item in his post-Swordfish catalog, and that may make up for it not being the masterpiece it seemed like it could have been.