Mule Variations

Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.94) - 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..." Spin (5/99, p.147) - "...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..." Entertainment Weekly (4/30/99, p.93) - "...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+ Q (1/00, p.86) - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 1999." Q (5/99, p.112) - 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..." Alternative Press (6/99, p.81) - 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..." The Wire (1/00, p.67) - Included in Wire Magazine's "50 Records Of The Year ['99]" The Wire (4/99, pp.73-4) - "...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..." CMJ (1/10/00, p.3) - Ranked #1 in CMJ's "Top 30 Editorial Picks [for 1999]." CMJ (4/26/99, p.3) - "...one of his finest efforts yet....Tom refuses to soften with age..." Melody Maker (5/1/99, p.38) - 4 1/2 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..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.65) - 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." Mojo (Publisher) (1/00, p.30) - Ranked #1 in Mojo Magazine's "Best of 1999" Mojo (Publisher) (5/99, pp.92-94) - "...Waits has written and sung about the weird, sweet, tortured lives of real people. MULE VARIATIONS is more of the queer, wonderful same..." NME (Magazine) (4/24/99, p.40) - 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..."