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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Alice
by Tom Waits


9.5

based on 20 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 28 votes
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Rate this album

One of two Waits releases in May 2002 ('Blood Money' is the other), 'Alice' was originally written as an opera and actually performed live during an 18-month engagement in Hamburg in the early 1990s. However, this is the first recording of these 15 tracks, culled from recent studio sessions.

LABEL:	Epitaph / Anti-
RELEASE DATE:	07 May 2002
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rock

NOTES: Also available on vinyl.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Launch.com

The sheer melodic gorgeousness of the finest songs here make Alice the pick of Waits's new matched set.

100

Splendid

I defy you to find a more elegantly shambolic, soulfully homespun and, indeed, heartfelt album than this.

100

Uncut

Waits does nothing predictable here, and the structure of even the most forlorn tear-jerker is ambitious and avant-something-or-other. [Co-Album Of The Month, June 2002, p.106]

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Heartbreakingly delicate even on the up-tempo numbers, Alice contains some of Waits' career's most tender moments.

Alternative Press

Alice is unique within Waits' unique discography, and it may be his most fully realized work. [Jul 2002, p.96]

Mojo

Vaporous, layered, beautifully evocative, with moments of discordant madness. [Co-Album Of The Month [with 'Blood Money'], May 2002, p.94]

PopMatters

Tom Waits has never made an album quite like Alice before.

Pitchfork

While the rest of pop culture infantilizes itself with cussing puppets and manufactured bands who willfully dangle like marionettes, Waits is serving up vintage brittle fusion and somehow breaking the law of diminishing returns. [Review of both Alice and Blood Money]

E! Online

Some tracks are as disconnected as a David Lynch film, but no one does misery like this neo-blues hollerer.

Entertainment Weekly

You'd be hard-pressed to find sounds this spookily evocative anywhere outside the grooves of scratchy old 78s. [Applies to both 'Alice' and 'Blood Money,' 10 May 2002, p.80]

Playlouder

'Alice' finds the twisted surrealisms of Lewis Carroll's relationship with Alice Liddell offering both refuge and escape for the usual Waits suspects: vagabonds, low-lifes and beautiful lunatics.

Blender

After decades, Waits's theater of musical cruelty is familiar stuff. But the old dog's tricks still have bite. [Applies to both Alice and Blood Money, Jun/Jul 2002, p.111]

All Music Guide

The melodies on Alice are easily the most direct Waits has written since Blue Valentine, but are more elegant than even those found on Foreign Affairs or Black Rider.

Rolling Stone

Waits' ravaged voice surrendered all pretensions to melody ages ago; his throat is now pure theater, a weapon of pictorial emphasis and raw honesty.

Q Magazine

Its woozy title track, oddly sideways lyrics and often meditative vibe make it a strangely gorgeous and graceful work. [May 2002, p.114]

The Wire

The sense of loss and longing becomes so physical at points that rather than respond, it's simpler to go with it until the ride ends in a drained silence. [#219, p.72]

Nude As The News

The album's songs do not attack you with bombast but rather smother you in a slow burn, like gathering frost suffocating a mournful shut-in.

New Musical Express

It’s a shimmering, mournful gem.

CultureDose.net

While there is nothing new on Alice, the songs he develops are well-structured, elegant and as bawl-worthy as ever.

CDNow

Waits' voice has always been an acquired taste, but those on the bus will appreciate the way he throws himself into every track as if haunting the characters like some sort of lunatic guardian narrator.

The average user rating for this album is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 28 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Richard P gave it a10:
Simply the greatest and most moving album i have ever had the pleasure to listen to.

mark gave it a10:
there is no finer album in its genre, whatever that genre might be. waits is a little like psychoanalysis or lsd - until you have "experienced" it, there is no understanding it.

Daniel T gave it a10:
This is indeed an unusual output from Toom Wiats, somehow underrated after its release and definately requires some patience whilst digesting. Still many of the songs are remarkeably well-written, and the overall result is excellent. One of the best albums from the "third period" of Tom Waits' music output. Notice 'Kommienezuspadt' and 'Poor Edward' in particular. The two songs sum up much of either side of his remarkeable musicianship.

Hein gave it a10:
Nothing better than this!

Jim L gave it a2:
Too dificult to enjoy.

Grant D gave it a10:
Unlike almost every other artist, this man gets better as he gets older. He is better than Jesus.

babs gave it a10:
tom waits is frickin' genius!

Alice by Tom Waits

Alice
by Tom Waits