Tom Waits Bad As Me

4 stars out of 5 -- "At its heart are electric guitars. Marc Ribot's jagged, Cuban-tinged riffs have helped define Waits' sound since the 1980s."
Ranked #23 in Rolling Stone's '50 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "Tom Waits sings in a heartbreaking growl on this vocally dynamic, emotionally direct album, one of his best."
"BAD AS ME burns at fuse speed, beginning with 'Chicago,' which sounds like it starts in the middle..."
"One thing you cant' fake: Wait's personal universe, full of carnies, dust, tears, whiskey, and hope. And yes, a whole lot of growling." -- Grade: A-
"BAD AS ME is the sound of a supremely confident artist convening a raucous celebration of his own myth, and is multifariously marvelous."
Ranked #13 in Uncut's '50 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "Exuberant, tender, truly idiosyncratic, Wait's first album of new songs in seven years was a stunner."
4 stars out of 5 -- "BAD AS ME works as Waits' 'greatest methods collection, encapsulating familiar m.o.'s as fractured grooves, rough-hewn, smoky yearning, dive-bar juke-joint shuffles, backstreet swagger and existentialist-loser paeans."
Ranked #2 in Magnet's '20 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "Waits is a hands-on technician; he rips the tires off the car and burns the rubber down."
"BAD AS ME sounds like a welcome echo of RAIN DOGS' spellbinding urban magic realism."
"The love songs are chastened, the anger is tar-black but contained, the verbal play not done for show but intimate, a gift to another....BAD AS ME might be his best ever."
4 stars out of 5 -- "[I]t's a kick to hear him serving the needs of his songs without dressing them up in identical work clothes....BAD AS ME is alive with some of his greatest yet."
4 stars out of 5 -- "BAD AS ME is shot through with rockabilly verve; 'Get Lost' bursts with youthful abandon, as if releasing the pent-up urges of a generation of 50s teens..."