2001, EAN: 0045778663217

Death metallers and gangsta rappers might claim to have the right stuff to chill a listener, but when he's at the top of his game, nobody can bring the shivers like Tom Waits -- and on th… Altro …

Death metallers and gangsta rappers might claim to have the right stuff to chill a listener, but when he's at the top of his game, nobody can bring the shivers like Tom Waits -- and on this 15-song collection, he's at the top of his game. The songs on Alice were written by Waits and longtime collaborator Kathleen Brennan for an avant-garde opera based loosely on Lewis Carroll's obsession with Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, and staged in 1992 in Hamburg, Germany. The album wasn't recorded until 2001, but given when the songs were written, it's not surprising that many of them carry the eerie, clangorous tenor that pervaded Waits's recordings of the era, namely '92's {|Bone Machine|}. As ever, his character studies -- of folks who have been around the block so many times, they can't help but slump over in a dingy corner -- are absolutely masterful, particularly Poor Edward and the title track. Waits's craggy wheeze of a voice carries palpable pain on neo-Gallic pieces like No One Knows I'm Gone and the mournful Watch Her Disappear, which, with its spare, harmonium-driven melody line, paints a stark picture of life on the wrong side of society's safety net. There's an undeniable beauty to the music on Alice -- dominated by cellos and subtly shaded horns, the disc could almost pass for a '30s period piece. But with Waits shaping the content, it's impossible to pin Alice down -- catch her outline out of the corner of your eye. Music>Music>Vinyl>BN.com Vinyl>BN.com Vinyl, Anti Core >3<

ISBN: 0045778663217

Vinile LP, Giucar