It Just Doesn't Get Any Better Than This
5
By billbowersjr
If you don't own this album, your mother wears army boots. It just doesn't get any better than this.
Not your typical Waits, but it still hits it.
4
By Boz3030
This album provides such an amazing, different side to Tom Waits. Arguably more accessible to your casual listener, the tracks collected here resonate with emotion and melancholy. The version of "Diamonds..." included on this album is loose and hot: an amazing track. The previously unreleased tracks are very noteworthy. A couple missteps with Shiver Me Timbers, and Grapefruit Moon, but aside from those, each one of these songs could become your next favorite.
Superb Beginnnings
5
By xcliff
Excellant work by Waits from 1971 before he had a contract. The songs are stripped down with his voice shining through like a rough diamond. Resembles Bob Dylan in North Country or Carol King on Tapestry. The songs stand on their own and later versions are no substitutes for the ones here.
Simply one of the best albums out there.
5
By A. Bergad
I'm not sure who writes the standard reviews for these albums, but they're horribly off. This is perhaps Tom as true as he can be, before the wraspy voice began, these are true songs of emotion, that share a part of him that isn't present in his later songs. Though I really enjoy much of his newer releases as well, this album offers a much different view into Tom. The song writing really stands out, and as one reviewer noted for Vol. 1, its great music to be up early in the morning, not having slept, with a (now mostly empty) bottle of bourbon.
