The Heart Of Saturday Night

しがない人々の心情をユーモアに満ちた暖かい視線で語る、酔いどれの奇才、トム・ウェイツ。彼の初期7作品が新たなリマスター音源となってAnti- Recordsより再リリース決定!こちらは夜の闇に向かって歌いかけるようなアンニュイな雰囲気と優しい視線とに包まれた、1974年発表のセカンド・アルバム『THE HEART OF SATURDAY NIGHT』。

Q - 4 Stars - Excellent - "..marked the start proper of Waits's boho image, with a voice weatherbeaten beyond his years, an endless cast of lowlife barfly characters.." Mojo - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[M]any key elements he explores on later records are already in place....Waits's songwriting classicism is equally evident on 'New Coat Of Paint'..."

If Closing Time, Tom Waits' debut album, consisted of love songs set in a late-night world of bars and neon signs, its follow-up, The Heart of Saturday Night, largely dispenses with the romance in favor of poetic depictions of the same setting. On "Diamonds on My Windshield" and "The Ghosts of Saturday Night," Waits doesn't even sing, instead reciting his verse rhythmically against bass and drums like a Beat hipster. Musically, the album contains the same mixture of folk, blues, and jazz as its predecessor, with producer Bones Howe occasionally bringing in an orchestra to underscore the loping melodies. Waits' songs are sometimes sketchier in addition to being more impersonal, but "(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday Night" and "Semi Suite" are the equal of anything on Closing Time. Still, with lines such as "...the clouds are like headlines/Upon a new front page sky" and references to "a 24-hour moon" and "champagne stars," Waits' imagery is beginning to get florid, and in material this stylized, the danger of self-parody is always present. ~ William Ruhlmann|