Tom Waits Mule Variations (2-LPs)

3 Stars (out of 5) - "If you're a fan...you'll get your long-awaited fix....Continuing BONE MACHINE's experiments in artfully scuffed sound...with scratches, hisses and gabbling field recordings..."
"...MULE VARIATIONS is named for a hybrid animal--the offspring of a male ass and a female horse. It's a pretty good description of Waits's aesthetic: Always messing with at least two genres per song, he sticks things together and makes them breed..."
"...the album restores the wizened humanity--and a more traditional sense of songcraft--to his music....At a time when rhythmic soundscapes have become as important in pop as melody, MULE VARIATIONS presents Waits as the biggest freak of all: the last of the classic American tunesmiths." - Rating: B+
Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1999."
4 Stars (out of 5) - "...the warmth and humor of MULE VARIATIONS' songs are allowed to shine through their lo-fi, bucolic blues skeletons. It's varied fare, the mood swinging beatifully between the charmingly cranky and clattering...and the lusciously sentimental..."
5 (out of 5) - "...His marvelously expressive voice sounds richer than ever....And as always, his instrumental foundation is impeccable - spare, understated and true. But Waits' greatest strength is in his interpretive skills. He simply writes great lyrics..."
Included in Wire Magazine's "50 Records Of The Year ['99]"
"...Each [song] simmers with in a carefully constructed atmosphere, like a dark goulash concocted with patience but no recipie book. The soundscapes are extraordinary, as is the tension between precisely judged production and passionately spontaneous performance..."
Ranked #1 in CMJ's "Top 30 Editorial Picks [for 1999]."
"...one of his finest efforts yet....Tom refuses to soften with age..."
4.5 stars (out of 5) - "...True to form, MULE VARIATIONS clanks, rattles, hammers, squawks, crackles and frequently swoons throughits generous 70 minutes. Nobody else makes music quite like this..."
Ranked #21 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[I]t's a veritable Jimmy Stewart of an album -- by turns irascible, sentimental and life-affirming."
Ranked #1 in Mojo Magazine's "Best of 1999"
"...Waits has written and sung about the weird, sweet, tortured lives of real people. MULE VARIATIONS is more of the queer, wonderful same..."
7 (out of 10) - "...quite batty, often fabulously so....mutating jazz, blues, parade music, show tunes, fairground banter, immigrant songs and beatnik spiel into a classy vernacular..."