Closing Time - Tom Waits

I was first intoroduced to Tom Waits' music back in the early 90's, by my sixth form Art teacher, who was passionate about everything, and had a heart as big as a house. It was a year or so after I had finished my tutoring that I stumbled across a copy of 'Closing Time' in a record shop and thought I'd give it a try, and I'm so so glad I did. 'Closing Time' is Tom's 1973 debut, at the tender age of 21. Indeed one of the first things that strikes you as you listen yo the album, is how did a 21 year old write songs containing such emotional maturity. At 21 Tom could never have experienced half of the subjects covered in the songs, but he tells them all with ...  Read the complete review

Tom Waits' debut Closing Time appears unique in his recording career. Beginning as a folky singer songwriter playing the piano and sometimes the guitar he went on to putting on a funny voice for a majority of the rest of his career. Closing Time's signature song if you will might have been 'I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You', a guitar ballad in which Tom citing his distaste for faling love and chronicling his doing so involuntarily in the end. His ability to tell stories with his song is evident in all his compositions on the album. His voice has real character and seem to scream hardened troubadour despite Wait's tender age of 23 at the time of ...  Read the complete review

If anyone ever needed proof that Tom Waits is an exceptionally gifted song writer in the traditional sense, they need only listen to Closing Time, his debut album. Released in the early 70's before experimentation and William Burroughs took hold, this album features Waits the barroom balladeer with smoky but palatable voice. Don't get me wrong, I love all of Waits' work and his voice, but I can appreciate that some may find it difficult to listen to. Here lies his most accessible work (along with Heart of Saturday Night) both vocally and melodically. What shines here is the quality of the songwriting and lyricism. Evidence of this is apparent from the off with ...  Read the complete review

Closing Time was the very first album from Tom Waits, one of the most noted and acclaimed songwriters in American history. Since its release, Waits has spent more than thirty years making some of the most innovative and original music in the world today. However, when Closing Time came out in 1971, Waits was a practically destitute piano player, living out of cheap motels and spending his last few dollars on cheap whiskey. This is an atmosphere that pervades throughout this album. This first batch of Waits' songs is inflected with the same sense of wistful melancholy that would become more and more pronounced over all of his albums ...  Read the complete review