Misery Is The River Of The World - Have only heard a snippet of this track, and it was mesmerising. So am looking forward to discovering Tom Waits.

    God's Away On Business - Tom Waits is a one of a kind singer with amazing songs and an amazing voice. His distinctive style must be placed in a genre of it's own...Bravo, Bravo.

    All The World Is Green - Just heard the song at the end of a picture. I just felt my tears roll down my face. It is so beautiful and touching.

    God's Away On Business - Tom Waits, with his distinctive voice and penchant for cynical and abrasive lyrics, is one of my favorite musicians of all time. I just watched the movie"Smartest guy in the room" and was not really shocked to see the corporate greed of ENRON was from the top down. This song could have been written by "Kenny Boy" or any one of his little henchmen. The lyrics hit home and make a perfect soundtrack for this movie.

    All The World Is Green - This song was used at the end of German choreographer Pina Bausch's "Nefes". It was extraordinarily moving, and a profound example of one artist using the work of another's, enriching both.

    God's Away On Business - So I'm watching the DVD 'The Smartest Guy's In The Room'. Halfway through I fall asleep. I am literally jolted awake by the song playing while the final credits are rolling. I play the song one more time. Then I start the DVD over, from the begining, so as to get the full affect of the song.

    God's Away On Business - Jesus well i guess that martyr ain't here for this song. I've never heard a tom waits song before, but damn I'm a 16 year old with a very diverse interest when it comes to music. I mean the video his lyrics the guy's got it. i think and i'm not trying to be childish nor immature when i say this but i felt like i was listening to the wicked monkeys in the wizard of oz when i heard this song. This has inspired me to write a few songs of my own. It's great, what else is there to say?

    God's Away On Business - This song was a very fitting choice to play while the credits roll on the movie "Smartest Guys in the Room." Yes, Enron had thieves in charge and nobody noticed until it was much too late. Great commentary on the state of business in the "deregulated" U.S.A.

    God's Away On Business - Wow -- I first heard this as part of the soundtrack of the Enron documentary "The Smartest Guys In The Room." You can't really call this a "song" -- nothing like singing is involved. But it is an extraordinary performance of declamation! Tom Waits, with his raspy basso profundissimo, delivers a strikingly Brecht/Weill'ian performance of a number that belongs in the middle of the Threepenny Opera. This is a great number.

    Coney Island Baby - What a great melody, especially during "She's a princess, in a red dress..." Beautiful song.

    Gods Away On Business - hahahaha this guy can take such a grave situation and put it in a song that somehow makes me smile. I love it!!!!

    Misery Is The River Of The World - Wow..This song is scary yet appealing..kind of reminds me of the old merrie melody cartoons from the 30's when you see skeletons dancing and shit flying..the lyrics are so real its scary very scary and it's true about the the thimble and the kindness of man..tom waits is strange in a very good way..aloha nui loa..Kimo

    All The World Is Green - A gorgeous highlight in Tom's career.

    God's Away On Business - I confess I've been a little abstracted from Tom Waits's works ever since he recorded the Black Rider, which may be some masterpiece but just a little too much for me. But this song and this video totally drew my attention from the very first time I listened/watched. The music, the voice (I always wondered if this is really Tom Waits's voice) and the eerie ambiance of the video are hardly separable and combine in perfection to bring us an image of a world seemingly abandoned by God. Who do we have in power? Killers, thieves and lawyers. If this song pleases you as much as it pleases me and if it makes you think, then I guess Tom Waits is still a very valuable character in the music scene.

    God's Away On Business - First heard the song a few days ago, and immediately felt drawn to it. I'm not sure what exactly it was, although I'm fairly sure it wasn't the lyrics (since I couldn't make out exactly what he was saying) But the darker mood to the song and the catchy victrola-esque background music made me love it. And now that I know the words...well, you can probably imagine!

    All The World Is Green - Simply... fantastic. for anyone who has ever been in love, made a mistake, and messed up, this song is... just... perfect. a pure work of genius, from the greatest songwriter of all time (except, maybe, bob marley).

    Tom Waits is a Genius. I have Rain Dogs, Alice, and Blood Money, my favorite being Blood Money. His sound is so unique.

    Anyone who has ever felt like they are starving in the belly of a whale -- then this CD is for you. It has great, grizzly, irreverent songs that beg you to wake up and smell the coffee. Then the next song can have you crying like a sad old drunk. Wonderful musicianship and poignant lyrics. Do yourself a favor and listen to a real artist. Forget Britney Spears.

    He's building a mountain range all by himself. And the only people climbing around on them are true adventurers. Blood Money is another mountain. A big one. Gotta love it. The voice of God must be sounding like Toms by now and I'm sure He's stomping along with this album.
The power songs are like thunderstorms. Brute force is a forte of his and man, Hurricane Tommy is back.
"That is the Part" played over a few times before I could begin beathing again. It's that breathtaking.
I haven't heard the rough versions of these songs though I know they exist, I'm curious to see what he did with them from the early state. I think he botched some of Alice with a rewrite and I suspect he may have edited a couple of these songs to death as well. Ignorance is bliss, though. I do know this came out pretty damn good though.
Here's hoping we'll be reviewing albums of his for years to come.

    Sorry for writing you in spanish, but this web is much better than the official one and i think you need to include some spanish Waits´ fans reviews.
Poseo todos los álbumes de Tom Waits desde "Closing Time" (incluso los no oficiales y la versión audio de Woyzeck) y creo que La Mula (como a él le gusta que le llamen) se ha vuelto a superar.
La melancolía, el desasosiego y la pérdida de esperanza que encierran "Alice" y "Blood Money" es difícilmente igualable por ningún otro artista (ni el poeta Leonard Cohen se acerca mínimamente). Pero no sólo las canciones son escalofriantemente bellas; la orquestación y los arreglos son sublimes... Parece que Tom ha entrado en el deseado por todos loa artistas "estado de gracia".
Me despido in english:
Keep on Tom; you´ve achieved your own state of grace !!!
PS: hey, Tom how about coming to Europe?

    Misery Is The River Of The World - Incredibly impressive, emotional and also very true... Mysterious like T.Waits himself. Through the song you can see an immense sensitivity of the guy, want to meet him.

    God's Away On Business - This song is a fantastic piece of work. It's dark, meloncholy, and sometimes very strange lyrics are accompanied perfectly by the deeply black track behind, giving an extrordinarily eerie feel to this song. Gives me goosebumps every time, I hope it'll do the same for you.

    All The World Is Green - I'm 23 and I have a voice similar to Mr. Wait's. I swear this song makes me want to cry every time I sing it.

    Just perfect.

    God's Away On Business - I completely disagree with Ginny. Agreed the song is a bit disturbing, and I can't really say anything about the video since I haven't seen it, but to say Tom Waits isn't trying to change the scary place the world has become isn't quite right. Many people don't realize just what a terribly place the world can be and this song tries to point it out to them. After all, change can't start until people recognize a problem. And I realize it's just a song and doesn't seem like it could change much, but sometimes songs carry alot more weight than people think.

    A fantastic album--I have trouble deciding whether I like it better than Alice, they both are fantastic--but my love of Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen makes me opt for this, the darker of Waits' dual releases. Keep it up Tom, we love you down here in the bowery.

    All The World Is Green - "The dew will settle on our graves. All the world is green." It is amazing to look back at all the Tom Waits albums and to see how he has progressed. This song is such a beautiful song and that line it amazing. If Blood Money is Wait's last album, what a hell of a way to end a magnificant career.

    God's Away on Business - This song is great! The world sucks for a lots of people and is getting worse very rapidly, AND IT IS because we have left killers, thieves and lawyers in charge. Its time for people to wake up, stop watching Fraser and Star Trek, and notice this! The more artists and citizens that stop to look to see and then scream the truth as loudly and colourfully as possible, the more others may hear. And only when LOTS of people start to take notice can even the possibility arise that things will change (and even then, its a stretch).

    All The World Is Green - I heard just a stanza on NPR and both the tune and words lodged in my head. As Pavel wrote, just about perfect.

    Starving In The Belly Of A Whale - Shit Waits absolutly rocks. Even though I prefer the original "Starving..." where Waits almost tears his throat apart, this recording is very impressive. It fits so well with the rest of Blood Money. I don't know but when my eyes are closed and I listen to this masterpiece I got a wicked, weird and very trippy Disney movie flowing in my head!

    A Good Man Is Hard To Find - Man what a great song!
You would swear that the singer here was a soulful black fat guy, not a soulful white skinny guy!
The song brings the images Waits gives listeners of Blood Money, to an end. It's almost mocking the illusion that Waits has set in the album. I mean, the majority of the album is dark, moody and bleak. A good man is hard to find still shares these views but makes light of them. It's like ohh the heck the world really is a bad place but that doesn't mean we can have fun admitting it.
I really love the song and the illusion it finalisers.

    All The World Is Green - The tune and TW's vocal are damn perfect!!! Don't know why but the melody of the song reminds me of the sea, to be exact of the Black Sea... a good old Crimea evening:-)) Huge thanks to Tom and his wife for such an excellent work!!!

    God's Away On Business - Well... this song is certainly saying something. There are some definite references to the corruptions of society and the speaker is either corrupt or sarcastically drawing attention to the evils. There are some obvious reaches for shocking imagery... be it for album sales or to make people feel, I don't know. And quite frankly, I don't care. The song and video are rather distrubing. I get the message. the world's a scary place. And this Tom Waits fellow isn't trying to change that.

    God's Away On Business - I heartily agree with Inomi when he writes that the song is fantastic. However, he says that the the song combines 'irrelative elements', which I don't think is true at all. Actually, the song appears to be a tightly structured dramatic monologue in which Waits takes on the persona of man who has thrown morality aside. In my opinion, this album boasts some of Wait's finest lyrical work. I still smile every time his persona envisions goodness as a mousetrap ('It's a deal! It's a deal!')

    Although the two albums are separate entities, 'Alice' and 'Blood Money' compliment each other perfectly.
The second album is "Blood Money", and as with "Alice", it is based on a Waits-adaptation of a play. In this case, the subject is "Woyzeck", a classic tale of a soldier driven to madness following a series of experiments who kills his wife on the grounds of infidelity. Starting with the powerful "Misery Is The River Of The World", Waits delivers his poetic philosophies with even more ferocity than the previous album, and his songwriting achievements are taken to a career high:
"If there's one thing you can say about mankind- there's nothing kind about man. All the good in this world you can put inside a thimble and still have room for you and me."
The quality never lets up, and on tracks such as "Coney Island Baby" and "Lullaby" we even get to hear a softer edge to that distinct voice. However, it is the harder, more typical performances that get the attention here- "Starving In The Belly Of A Whale" and "God's Away On Business" are definitely only for karaoke fans who aren't afraid to burst their lungs, while "Another Man's Vine" is a slow and downbeat song about fears of unfaithfulness.
Despite the songs following the concept of "Woyzeck" to its tragic climax, the final track of "Blood Money" takes us out on some sort of high, exclaiming that "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" while Waits sings over an almost-positive track with a melody that seems to contradict the story's plot. In fact, you can almost picture the cast of the play coming back onto the stage for a bow and curtain call while this little number plays, such is its sound.
I can seriously recommend these albums to anybody- not just seasoned Waits fans. With so many different styles of music in such a short space of time, these albums are worthy of anybody's collection! Although many will dispute that these are Waits' best albums (because of their play-based nature), "Alice" and "Blood Money" are his best works in years, and should not be avoided.

    Starving In The Belly Of A Whale - Wow what an amazing song, never heard anything like it. Not too familiar with Mr. Waits and heard this on college radio. Anybody tell me if the rest of "Blood Money" is this good?
Also, i've heard that Rain Dogs is his best work, worth it to buy?

    God's Away On Business - This song is fantastic! I mean alright, Tom Waits is unconventional anyhow, but this is one the ingeniously made songs, combining totally irrelative elements and containing three different parts: One where God's away on business is being sung by screaming voices, then there's some talking sounding like german (Woyzeck) and finally some very high pitched singing combined again with softer Tom Waits singing. AAAAwwwwssooooommmeeee :-)

    My dad just came home with the Blood money cd just about a week ago and when he first put it on i was a little sketchy. I was not sure if i liked it or not. That however quickly changed. By the time i have listened to the whole thing threw just once, I was already starting to really like it. My friends are getting annoyed that i keep humming to the off beat rythem of "starving in the belly of a whale" and that i keep trying to at least listen to the album. All in all i really loved the album, and i think i am going to go out and get Alice as soon as i get off work.

    If you have heard Blood Money, and want something more that is also kind of like it, Get the "Black Rider" also by Tom Waits. It is really good.

    "Woyzeck" is a different kind of play. Written by Buchner in the early 1800s, it is about the institutionalized madness created by the military, and the anger and jealousy created by the suspicious nature of a spouse. This album is dead on accurate in terms of the themes of the original play, and I greatly look forward to seeing Wilsons interpretation.

    Fantastic.