If you've never had the pleasure of someone playing you their favorite Tom Waits album, this disc will introduce you to the quirky humor, poignant back-alley and barroom poetry, and Bukowskiesque vision you've been missing. From the fearful "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six" ("16 shells from a thirty-ought six... whittle you into kindlin'") to the haunting dead-railroad-town vision of "Town With No Cheer" ("there's a hummingbird trapped in a closed-down shoe store") to the prison-break adrenaline of "Trouble's Braids", Waits takes you for a ride that will rush by your windows long after the music stops.

Steve Champeon