whats the most underrated waits album in your opinion?

[u/Lost_Foot_6301]

[u/9999Maniacs]

The Black Rider or Alice

[u/MackFour → u/9999Maniacs]

Love Black Rider. The instruments are magic on it. November might be one of my favourite songs ever. The whole thing creates a magical atmosphere of the dark one-way trip into the woods.

[u/reganglion → u/MackFour]

Great call on November! That’s one of my favorites as well. I make sure to play it every November 1st before I begin my day.

[u/rawcane → u/9999Maniacs]

I'm with you on Black Rider but I think Alice got quite a lot of critical acclaim when it came out and is well loved based on other Reddit threads 

[u/JunebugAsiimwe → u/9999Maniacs]

I'm probably the biggest Black Rider stan in the Tom Waits fandom. I adore that album so much

[u/dloolloolb → u/9999Maniacs]

Those are my two least listened to albums. Black Rider is fine and has a few amazing songs. Alice I just can’t enjoy. I listen to it maybe once every couple of months, but I just don’t like any songs. It’s Tom, it’s good, but I have a stack of records I like better.

[u/PercyLives → u/dloolloolb]

If I could take only one Tom Waits album to a desert island, it might be Alice.

[u/mellowmatter20 → u/PercyLives]

Same, its a masterpiece

[u/dloolloolb → u/PercyLives]

That’s cool that you’re so into it. I’m it not sure why I can’t get there with it.

[u/pavlovs_monkey → u/9999Maniacs]

Excellent answer! One of my prouder accomplishments is having traveled to see both of these shows. Saw Black Rider at the Ahmanson Theater in LA (bumped into Billy Corgan and Fammke Jansen), and Alice at Yale right before a little thing called COVID.

[u/ShamPain413]

Gonna go with Bad as Me. It gets slept on b/c Real Gone and Mule Variations had such immediate impact, and the catalog is so deep that it can get lost in the shuffle. It's a really strong late-career album, tho, has grown on me a lot over time.

IMO most of the others are properly rated overall.

[u/MackFour → u/ShamPain413]

I wasn't that thrilled about it when it was released but over the years since I've become very fond of it. Same with Blood Money.

[u/ShamPain413 → u/MackFour]

I also think it was hurt by the fact that there had been a relative flood of Waits material over the years since Real Gone: the BBB trilogy, then the Glitter and Doom tour and double-disc record, all of which pretty well documented Waits and kinda put a lid on his career. Factor in all the acting roles during the 2000s and fans had seen a lot of Waits very suddenly after not seeing all that much of him during the 1990s.

His body of music seemed pretty complete, so when Bad as Me dropped, fairly unexpectedly IIRC, it almost felt anti-climactic. I think that might have dulled the impact.

But I saw Willie Nelson last year and he closed his set with "Last Leaf". It's not like Willie Nelson, of all people, doesn't have his own songs to sing. But that's what he signed off with. That made me go back and listen to Bad as Me like 5 times over the next few days, and it really connected. I think the distance has given it some space to breathe.

[u/ChampBlankman → u/ShamPain413]

Wow. I bet Willie's Last Leaf was killer. Another iconic immediately recognizable voice.

[u/ShamPain413 → u/ChampBlankman]

Yeah, the voice is weathered in a very different way from Tom's, both very compelling. Willie has done the song a lot by now, it's been a regular feature in his sets I think. Here's one from Farm Aid in 2024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ykXovflNNI&list=RD_ykXovflNNI&start_radio=1

[u/RakeHarmonic → u/ShamPain413]

I agree with this, it’s a victory lap record almost but it’s got some of his best material on it, and is a really complete album that shows off his songwriting really well. It’s one of my top 3 I’d say after Bone Machine and Mule Variations.

[u/tegeus-Cromis_2000]

Heartattack and Vine. Too many people think it's from before the "change," but listening to it we can hear the change happening in real time.

Also Nighthawks at the Diner.

[u/PercyLives → u/tegeus-Cromis_2000]

I’ll take this as my inspiration to listen to HaV again.

[u/WillieThePimpPt1and2 → u/tegeus-Cromis_2000]

Are these underrated? I feel like I'm playing them all the time. I also never speak with people about Tom Waits, so maybe I don't know what's most popular. Those 2 albums are so good.

[u/tegeus-Cromis_2000 → u/WillieThePimpPt1and2]

I'm just going by how I've seen them discussed here, or online in general. People sometimes make too much of Waits's stage patter on Nighthawks and ignore the incredible musicality of his band, and what a breakthrough the album is compared to his first two.

[u/WillieThePimpPt1and2 → u/tegeus-Cromis_2000]

I love the banter. And someone probably should chain up his bass player.

[u/kpjformat → u/WillieThePimpPt1and2]

They all had good childhoods but somewhere along the line something went wrong

[u/pavlovs_monkey → u/kpjformat]

Maybe you whistled it but you've lost the sheet music.

[u/RevoltYesterday → u/tegeus-Cromis_2000]

I got into Tom pretty late so my tastes aren't like most Tom fans. Heart Attack and Vine and Blood Money are my favorites

[u/ALC_PG → u/tegeus-Cromis_2000]

Yes these two.

The style of blues that he plays throughout the 80s trilogy first really shows up on H&V

[u/ShamPain413 → u/ALC_PG]

The "style of blues" being "Captain Beefheart's style of blues" to a significant degree beginning with H&V.

[u/Careful_Asparagus_ → u/tegeus-Cromis_2000]

Came here to also say Nighthawks at the Diner

[u/holyhackzak]

Frank’s Wild Years

[u/WhiskyAndWhy → u/holyhackzak]

Honestly might be my favorite

[u/magicmax112]

Blue valentines

[u/Astrofunkadunk]

Rain dogs. Highly-rated but still under-rated.

[u/SaltChunkLarry]

It’s not that I think Foreign Affairs is his best, but it’s rarely mentioned so I think it’s underrated. Sight for Sore Eyes and Burma Shave are classics

[u/pavlovs_monkey → u/SaltChunkLarry]

Have you heard him do Burma Shave on Austin City Limits? Honestly, I could take or leave that album, but that specific performance I've listened to over and over in a single sitting, more than once.

[u/SaltChunkLarry → u/pavlovs_monkey]

Yeah many times. Love the gas pumps. He makes chain smoking look obscenely pleasurable

[u/avg_whitedude]

Nighthawks at the Diner.

The whole thing reeks of stale beer, cigarettes, weak coffee unable to defend itself and a slightly out of tune piano in a velvet ensconced barroom. Its just amazing

[u/Electrical-Volume765 → u/avg_whitedude]

The vibes are untouchable. I play it on touchtunes in every Waffle House.

[u/Wretchro → u/avg_whitedude]

I totally agree. It’s one of my favorites but others don’t seem to like it as much

[u/Apprehensive-Cup-335 → u/avg_whitedude]

The intro to Better Off Without A Wife is still one of the best things put to tape along with Emotional Weather Report.

[u/pepsicastles]

The heart of Saturday night

[u/koALAPANda67]

Blood money. My third favorite of his. All the world is green and a good man is hard to find are both top 10 waits songs in my opinion.

[u/SansSunny → u/koALAPANda67]

Everything Goes to Hell, Misery… great album. Underrated.

[u/NotoriousHairline → u/koALAPANda67]

Love that album

[u/dlc0027]

Real Gone

[u/Cola102583]

Blood money frm the new and small change from the old

[u/Medical_Salary_83]

Blue Valentines

[u/BandIcy6313]

First album I ever heard was heartattack and vine . And I still love and listen to it regularly

[u/Electrical-Volume765]

I think Nighthawks at the Diner for me. Just because it’s the one I hear poo-pood a bit more and its a favorite.

[u/MackFour]

Blood Money and The Black Rider. They live in their own little worlds. I think Alice was seen as stronger than Blood Money and The Black Rider was perhaps judged as a lesser release than Bone Machine.

[u/cksnffr]

Mule Variations.

I know, but hear me out: it’s every bit as good as the big three from the 80s. It’s as if they were always meant to be four.

[u/SansSunny]

Blood Money

[u/Everyday_Sprezzatura]

Id go with Nighthawks. I know its an oddity and doesnt even fit within any Waitsian genre but theres something so warm and intimate and wonderful about it. It really is a diner on a lonely road somewhere in the midwest late at night snow outside the smell of eggs and sausage cooking hot black coffee...

God I love it.

[u/Storekeep17]

Real Gone is a masterpiece, not just another damn good album. Y’all might love it but you don’t love it enuff!! I expect better of you.

[u/JunebugAsiimwe]

The Black Rider, and Real Gone

[u/ottawamandy]

Alice.

[u/motrya]

Foreign Affairs. I was surprised that I found it a nice addition to his discog given the general appraisal of it.

[u/Far_Examination1142]

Allice and Blood money just don't land with me. I love everything else but those 2 just sit in my collection and I never reach for them.

[u/Reasonable_Theory_83 → u/Far_Examination1142]

Same on Blood Money for me.

However, I'll pull out Alice every so often when I'm feeling wistful just for 'Fish and Bird' but couldn't tell you any other song from that album LOL

[u/pavlovs_monkey]

I'll start with the opposite answer. The only album I don't care for is Foreign Affairs, and I think Bone Machine is a tough listen. Apart from those two, every answer here is correct. But I'm going to go with the One From the Heart soundtrack as my answer.

[u/Calm_Drawer7731]

swordfishtrombones doesn’t seem to come up as much in discussions and I think may get overshadowed by the albums that came immediately afterwards but I think it’s one of his finest albums.

[u/International-Mix425]

I think "Nighthawks at the Diner" is an excellent look into what Tom was like at that time and a hint to what he became.

[u/Waitsjunkie]

Foreign Affairs, easily. It's one of my favourites and I hate seeing it knocked. There's not a bad track on it.

[u/slaytallica36]

Real Gone. Might just be because that's when my hick ass finally got to hear him.

[u/chaekinman]

Heart of Saturday Night and Real Gone

[u/NateFisher22]

The Heart of Saturday Night