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Mule Variations | 
| Artist: Tom Waits
Label: Epitaph
Category: Music
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.48
as of 24/11/2009 12:01 GMT details
You Save: £5.51 (55%)
New (16) Used (7) from £4.48
Seller: medimops-uk
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 2604
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 8714092654721
ASIN: B000023YFV
Release Date: April 19, 1999
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Big In Japan | | • | Lowside Of The Road | | • | Hold On | | • | Get Behind The Mule | | • | House Where Nobody Lives | | • | Cold Water | | • | Pony | | • | What's He Building | | • | Black Market Baby | | • | Eyeball Kid | | • | Picture In A Frame | | • | Chocolate Jesus | | • | Georgia Lee | | • | Fillipino Box Spring Hog | | • | Take It With Me | | • | Come On Up To The House |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Seven years passed between the release of iBone Machine/i and iMule Variations/i. During that time Tom Waits eschewed cutting another "conventional" (the term used loosely here) song collection, occupying his time with acting projects, a soundtrack (iNight on Earth/i), a stage project (iThe Black Rider/i), and sundry smaller diversions. What's surprising about iMule Variations/i is how little he's strayed from the old iBone/i yard through the years. As with his Grammy-winning 1992 outing, Waits intersperses the tough and the tender, mixing exercises in creative noisemaking with tunes that fall on just the right side of maudlin. As with iBone Machine/i's "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me", "What's He Building?" is an experiment in word jazz that owes a debt to its creator, Ken Nordine. Waits has again assembled a crew of attuned sidemen (including Primus and steadfast backers Ralph Carney, Larry Taylor, and Joe Gore). And, as always, Waits and his wife-co-songwriter-co-producer Kathleen Brennan exhibit an uncanny ear for the arcane. In the end, iMule Variations/i is the aural equivalent of a salvage shop that, while largely familiar, still has a few secluded chambers and trap doors. i--Steven Stolder /i
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 Mr Waits; A Bonzai Aphrodite and Other Stories ( nevertoolate #004 ) April 10, 2008
The Wolf (uk)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
35 years at the top of his game.
br /
br /Between 1973's 'Closing Time' and the triple-whammy of 'Orphans' in 2006
br /Mr Waits has been resonsible for a whole lot of damned fine music
br /winging its' way out into this cracked and weary world of ours.
br /
br /Every Waits fan will have their own favorite album.
br /Today mine is 'Mule Variations' (this time next year mabe it'll
br /be 'Small Change' again, or maybe 'Alice', or maybe....).
br /
br /Released in 1999 on the Anti label this collection of sixteen
br /pieces seems to me to bring together everything that makes this
br /great maverick truly unique.
br /Parched, blistering rock and roll; drunken bar-room blues;
br /gentle heart-wringing ballads; deeply unsettling monologues.
br /
br /....and stories! Always with the stories !
br /
br /Painting small worlds alive with words and music has always
br /been his greatest gift.
br /Circus sideshow eccentrics; marginal paranoid loners and drifters and losers and lovers
br /line up to share their hopes and fears and longings.
br /
br /....and stomping ! Always with the stomping !
br /
br /All manner of things get thumped and slapped and crunched
br /( even drums sometimes ) to create the kind of rhythmic
br /mayhem and density of raw emotional sound which only this master
br /could muster. Guitarist Marc Ribot's solo on 'Cold Water' must
br /have stripped the paint off the ceiling.
br /
br /....and suddenly it all falls away and there in the corner is
br /a man with a crooked hat and a broken down piano singing
br /a bruised and tender love song ( 'Take It With Me' ) of such hushed
br /intimacy that one can barely breathe until it's over.
br /
br /This man and his many worlds are indivisible and precious.
br /
br /
br /
Brilliant and Bluesy February 11, 2005
Mr. M. R. Pountney
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
This is a great album form the start. I think this is a bit of a new style for Tom but he really gets into it. There are raw delta blues offerings("Cold water", "low Side of the road") beautiful hyme style ballads("C'mon up to the house", "Georgia Lee") a cinematic narration("What's he building")and "Box-spring hog" sounds like a Captain Beefheart. Don't expect "Swordfish" or "Raindogs" and I think you'll be impressed! I really like this style and hope Tom creates another in this mode.
a must have album October 4, 2000
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
' Mule Variations' is one those very rare, special albums that everybody should own. From the intro to Big in Japan the album takes you through a roller coaster of emotions and music all in unmistakeable, rough , gravelly Tom Waits style . Stand out cuts are difficult to pick as every song is superbly crafted and written 'Hold On' winner of a Grammy for best Rock vocal is a song that Springsteen would have wanted to write and features some of the best lyrics Tom Waits has written 'Chocolate Jesus' ' Take It With Me ' etc etc . Each song is a classic . The album isn't always immediate and every time it is played you always hear something different ....
Tom Waits' Best Work November 14, 1999
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've got most of Tom Waits' albums from Closing Time to Mule Variations and I have to say this is probably his best yet. Every one of his albums has its classics but MV outdoes itself. Its worth the price just for 'Picture in a Frame' which is one the simplest and most impressive songs he's done. MV is also an incredibly varied album and shows off how well Tom can switch between radically different styles and make them all fit together. If you're new to Tom Waits, this is definitely the place to start.
Great Waits in all his styles! December 26, 2003
Pieter (Johannesburg)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
This great album opens with Big In Japan, a humorous number in bluesy style with brilliant guitar and innovative arrangement, which is followed by the slow, eerie Lowside Of The Road, a real hangover song with striking imagery. pHold On is a typical sad Waits ballad, which means it#8217;s beautiful, tuneful and moving. It has an unusually light rhythm and melody though, unlike some of his other masterpiece ballads like for example In The Neighbourhood or Saving All My Love For You. House Where Nobody Lives is unique too, another gripping ballad with moving words and images. It makes me think of both Mansion On The Hill by Springsteen and the old classic Satisfied Mind.pAll Waits#8217; styles are in glorious display including the talking blues of Get Behind The Mule and the deep bluesrock of ballads like Come On Up To The House and Cold Water. For someone who prefers his ballads and his singing voice, I find both quite appealing. The next track, Pony, is another one of my favorite slow melodic numbers embellished with exquisite pump organ, dobro and harp.pThis album certainly lives up to its name with its astonishing variety, like the spooky spoken track What#8217;s He Building and the story songs Black Market Baby and Eyeball Kid with its innovative samples and percussion. Waits even explores his Beefheartian side on Filipino Box Spring Hog. There#8217;s also the gentle love song Picture In A Frame with its elegant piano and the sorrowful country song Georgia Lee.pMule Variations is a masterpiece of an album that contains impressive, timeless songs of great lyrical depth, melodic beauty and stylistic variety. Whether you like Waits as a phenomenon by himself or whether you like only certain of his styles, this album will not disappoint as it offers enough brilliance for everybody.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
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