I've covered everything pretty well in the old best album thread, but I'll just re-hash the album that has become my favorite (and I already made Nolan get it <3)



Everytime I pick up a Waits album I have to reconsider this album's position as favorite, because each one impresses me in a different way. But this is an album that I could gush about forever. It has a really good balance between older, melodic classic Waits and later experimental Waits, probably leaning towards the former. It's got the ballads (Time is nonparial with its surprising tenderness and beautiful lyrics, and I can't listen to Blind Love without howling along), the humour (Cemetary Polka is so darkly funny, it just shows another element of brilliance in his songwriting), the groovy songs (Gun Street Girl and Big Black Mariah always get my feet tapping), and my two favorites Tango 'Til They're Sore and Anywhere I Lay My Head, which are absolute showstoppers. There's also a delicious creepiness to songs like Clap Hands and 9th and Hennepin, a sort of forboding.

The worst songs for me are Hang Down Your Head and Downtown Train, and their only crime is being slightly less interesting than the others. I recommend this album for anyone who is musically open-minded (because it is certainly an aqquired taste).

Also, I'm changing my favorite Radiohead album from OK Computer to Kid A