Blue Valentine

A beautiful, melancholy orchestral string melody announces the opening of the album. Then comes that unmistakable voice: Tom Waits, rough and unpolished. As the opening musical number ‘Somewhere (From West Side Story)’ suggests, this record has a character that sets it apart from his previous work. His sixth album, released in 1978, only reached No. 181 in the charts, but its jazzy portrait of lonely people in the urban night could be considered one of his representative works.

The urban night Waits portrays is profoundly deep. As an outstanding storyteller, he places an anxiety that can never be healed over playing filled with jazz and blues feeling; sometimes he sings it, sometimes he shouts it out. Every song is excellent, but ‘Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis,’ ‘$29.00’ and ‘Wrong Side of the Road’ in particular feel like Tom's own personal domain. There is no doubt that this is an essential, important work in his career.