Closing Time

Tom Waits | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: October 16, 1990
• Release Date: October 16, 1990
• Label: Rhino/Elektra
• Copyright: 1973 Elektra Entertainment Group for the United States and WEA International Inc. for the world outside of the United States.
• Record Company Required Metadata: Music file metadata contains unique purchase identifier. Learn more.
• Total Length: 45:45
• Genres:
  • Rock
• ASIN: B001EU79F4
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (141 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,842 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A booze-soaked love letter February 12, 2000

By "thewritingbuddha"

Format:Audio CD

It's 2:00am and that bottle of Jack is paying you back, whispering loneliness. You think back to the girl you once loved - the girl you lost. You know you shouldn't think of her, but it's as if the memory itself is what drives you.

Tom Waits gave us a nice collection of tunes with this album. "Martha" is beautiful. "Lonely" is what it is. It's funny... Mention Tom Waits to most people, and - if they even know who he is - they'll just see him as this Charles Bukowski guy with a hoarse voice. The early Tom Waits gave us some of the most beautiful ballads. He paints a picture that few (Springsteen, Nick Cave are the only ones that come to mind) could ever rival. His work is infused with poetic grace; his is a drunken ode to melancholy.

This album, like "Frank's Wild Years", is a perfect introduction to his music. Check it out...

61 of 65 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Tom's Early Masterpiece October 18, 2004

By G P Padillo VINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

This is the album for all those who think they hate Tom Waits. Perhaps his most easily accessible album, Closing Time is a tour-de-force for anyone who's had their heart broken and lived the ensuing days (months, years . . . ) in a bar. The lyrics display Waits' way with words (too many "w's" there, I know) and wedding them (whoops!) together with music that is as perfect a fit as Goethe is to Schubert. Anyone who doesn't get a bit teary at "I hope that I don't fall in love with you" - or "Rosie" must have ice coursing through their veins.

69 of 77 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless April 23, 2001

By David Bradley

Format:Audio CD

This great, great album, arguably the best of Waits career, has been in my Top 10 since the day I first heard it. If anything, it has edged higher up my personal chart as the years have gone by.

Once upon a time it was a great late night drinking album, one my friends and I would listen to on cassette while driving from DC to Baltimore and back on a Saturday night. Later, during a phase I'll only mysteriously hint at, because that will give me a cool, artistic aura that drives chicks crazy, it was a late night drinking LP for me and me alone. Still later, it was a great CD to sing along to as I tried to get my newborn son to sleep. He still likes these songs.

There is so much great music here that I won't even waste your time with a track-by-track review. My personal favorites are "Old Shoes(& Picture Postcards" and "Grapefruit Moon," but this is a near-perfect record, from open to close. Anyone who saw Bette Midler's teary version of "Martha" on Saturday Night Live a few generations ago could see the effect Waits songwriting had on his L.A. contemporaries.

By the way, Waits version of "Ol' 55" proves that the Eagles, who covered it on their first LP, could kill even the greatest of tunes.