Tom Waits’ first seven albums, originally released through Elektra Asylum Records in the 1970’s are now available digitally and are available on CD. All seven titles – many of which have been long out of print – are to be re-released on hi-quality 180-gram vinyl throughout 2018. The time-honoured and critically acclaimed debut album ‘Closing Time’ can be purchased on vinyl and the six additional titles – ‘Heart of Saturday Night’, ‘Nighthawks at the Diner’, ‘Small Change’, ‘Foreign Affairs’, ‘Blue Valentine’ and ‘Heartattack and Vine’ – will be available for vinyl pre-order tomorrow. Additionally, the Tom Waits Web Store will exclusively offer limited editions of 1000 clear 180-gram vinyl per title in the US and 1000 180-gram moss green vinyl in Europe. Click here for the purchase and pre-order links.
To coincide with all these catalogue re-releases, Waits has personally curated a playlist spanning his entire career. You can now explore Waits’ many styles of storytelling and heartbreaking melodies via Spotify (below) and Apple Music.
On Record Store Day 2018 Waits will reissue his 2006 triple album ‘Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards’, which will be available as individual vinyl pieces for the first time ever on red, blue and grey 180-gram limited edition vinyl exclusively on 21st April in record stores across the United States.
‘Orphans’ is a collection of 56 songs that goes beyond a simple career retrospective, featuring vintage and newly recorded songs from 1984 to the mid-nineties. Over two-thirds of the songs had previously never been released by Waits before it’s original release in 2006. The collection is divided by genre; ‘Brawlers’ is filled with raucous blues and full-throated juke joint stomps; ‘Bawlers’ is classic lyrical Waits songs, including Celtic and country ballads, waltzes and lullabies; Finally, ‘Bastards’ is a collection of experimental music and strange tales. Grammy-nominated for Best Contemporary Folk Album and certified Gold in the US, UK and Canada, the ‘Orphans’ three-disc collection was called “a definitive album” by Rolling Stone.