WAITS, TOM

Long admired as one of the most eclectic, innovative, uncompromising and enigmatic figures in popular music, the legendary TOM WAITS follows up his 1999 million-selling and Grammy-winning Mule Variations with not one but two new albums!! Waits' listeners have grown accustomed in the last decade to longer intervals between new albums. But, as usual, the only thing to be expected from Waits is the unexpected and we're now lucky enough to be bestowed with 2 more classics for our collections.

ALICE, often dubbed "the lost Tom Waits masterpiece", was originally composed as an avant-garde opera for Hamburg's Thalia Theater in 1992 and finally finds its much-anticipated release a decade later. Based loosely on Lewis Carroll's obsession with young Alice Liddell- the girl who inspired his Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass stories- these unforgettable adult fairy tales are played out by piano, bass sax, strings and vibes in spare and hypnotic arrangements.

A beautiful atmosphere made of sorrow and reflection, it's a lyrical melancholia, a feeling that creeps in on the wings of Stroh violins and unabashed poetry. These are songs to lose yourself in- fragile, haunted musings, laments, mad ruminations, and tales of unrequited love and anthems.

Alice, is one of the most distinctive of all Waits' creations, it occupies its own corner of the odd-angled room that is Tom Waits' career. While there are the familiar parts - the incredible, ragged voice, jazz ballads and poignant musings on death and longing - the whole is strange and exotic; it's yet another stellar twist in the tail of Waits' serpentine body of work.

"Alice," says Waits, "is adult songs for children, or children's songs for adults. It's a maelstrom or fever-dreams with torch songs and waltzes.an odyssey in dream logic and nonsense."

Once again, the wait for 'Waits has proved to be more than worth it.

Estimated despatch 14-20 days after ordering.