Track Listing

1. Misery Is The River Of The World
2. Everything Goes to Hell
3. Coney Island Baby
4. All the World Is Green
5. God's Away On Business
6. Another Man's Vine
7. Lullaby
8. Starving In The Belly Of A Whale
9. The Part You Throw Away
10. Woe
11. Calliope ( instrumental )
12. A Good Man

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8551 in Music
• Released on: 2002-05-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Based on director Robert Wilson's horrific tale of a 19th century Prussian soldier subjected to medical experiments after being driven insane by his cheating woman, Tom Waits' Blood Money is-contrarily--the funniest Waits album since his late 1970s drunken cabaret period. The musical landscape is painted by alternately stomping or swaying jazz rhythms and melodies, pizzicato strings, sexy mutant Latin guitars, wailing harmonicas, lyrical clarinets and drunken brass, while Waits utilises every voice--from poisoned croon to martial rant--that he's ever stumbled upon, as his metaphors and killing jokes turn horror into bleak hilarity.

Ignore those who say that Blood Money is the evil, inaccessible twin of the concurrently-released Alice--they perhaps don't appreciate the desire for redemption and the love of humanity that lies behind the ironies of all great black comedy. Blood Money is a new musical and poetic peak, and the greatest Tom Waits album yet. --Garry Mulholland

CD Description
'Blood Money' follows along the same lines as 'Alice', in that it was also originally written for an opera. Inspired and loosely based on the sociopolitical play 'Woyzeck', which was written in 1837. This is a more traditional sounding TomWaits album, mixing folk, country, blues and jazz ballads, therefore not as avant-garde as 'Alice'. Both albums have been released simultaneously.

Customer Reviews

Not for pop idol fans!
If you have liked any Tom Waits albums since Sworfishtrombones, you will love this....just a word of caution though :it is not suitable for those of a nervous disposition! The aura created by the brilliant and original inventiveness of Tom Waits may leave you with an uneasy feeling.You wont find yourself humming these songs in the shower!
There is nothing startingly different from much of his more recent work on this album,it is similiar to many of his other post Swordfishtrombones offerings. But what he does, he does brilliantly. For me he is the only genius working in the world of rock: rock music as art? In the hands of Tom Waits, most certainly yes.
If you have never bought a Tom Waits album this would be a good place to start. If you are fed up of the usual bland pap that passes for rock music these days and are looking for an album with originality, black humour, great lyrics, amazing arrangements that is more than just a little off the wall, then this is for you. Buy it!! Within 5 seconds of the start of track 1 you will know you are in the presence of genius.

Getting back to his roots....
I have a problem. I got to know Mr Waits years ago (around about Closing Time) when his style was far different. More poetry set to sleazy jazz than music. I loved it. Then he went weird. A bit like when Dylan went electric I suppose. I have gone out and bought most of his CDs over the years but have never really enjoyed then since about Heart Attack and Vine. Recently though I bought Alice and Blood Money. I have to admit that he has eventually won me over. The songs are painfully beautiful. The lyrics haunt you. OK I still need the occasional fix of Small Change Got Rained On or Burma Shave but I can now listen and love once more. Plus the kids have stopped rolling their eyes every time I play it. Buy it and cry!

damn near vintage Tom
This is Thomas at very near his uncompromising best: a demented tango, a sliver of mississippi delta blues, some lushly orchestrated sinister instrumental passages, much staccato blurting and gurgling, a little fractured crooning, and the now familiar recourse to the pulpit ('The devil knows the Bible like the back of his hand'). While not sounding quite new to aficionados of his recent work, the production and the songwriting still genuinely startle, and the reward for negotiating the mostly bumpy terrain is a meltingly tender finale, in which (one of his great talents) he breathes new life into the most insipid cliche: A Good Man is Hard to Find.