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100In 'Real Gone's fearsome complexity of rhythm, lyric and device, Tom Waits appropriates like a shoplifter without much time, and creates something entirely his own. A new music.
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100Slapping his knees, spitting and grunting, Waits makes the already raw blues sound of songs like "Metropolitan Glide" and "Trampled Rose" sound even more grizzled.
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91Totally grimy. [Nov 2004, p.118]
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90There is plenty that is remarkable about Real Gone.
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90Another smartly executed step into the strange grandeur of Mr. Waits. [#12, p.94]
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Real Gone is incredible because of its songs, some of which stand among Waits' finest work.
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Often riveting--and even a little gangsta. [8 Oct 2004, p.114]
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Real Gone... is Waits' grittiest work to date and is an excellent introduction, for those unacquainted, to his hard-boiled thirty-year run.
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80Reliably odd, then, but unexpectedly moving, too: the best Tom Waits album, all told, since 1992's "Bone Machine".
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80It lurches along like a junk-heap jalopy, unsteady and unsafe, bits flying off in every direction, stopping, starting, and bouncing in pain.
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80When you boil Real Gone down to its tracks, you'll keep finding more reasons to love this man – more than anything, you can sense his easy grin.
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80His first, full-tilt protest record... he comes out swinging, in every respect. [Oct 2004, p.110]
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80Waits returns to spare storytelling. [Oct 2004, p.130]
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All the idiosyncrasies which either drew you to Waits or repelled you from him are present, and many songs hold a resemblance to past gems.
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80Real Gone leans on nail-bending percussion and swagger in a manner that recalls Bone Machine's metallic binge more than the recent theatrics of Alice or Blood Money.
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80Real Gone may not rock your world in the way that 2002's musical one-two punch of Blood Money and Alice did, but you'll still be glad to hear it.
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80A set of powerfully written and unfussily executed songs. [#248, p.50]
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The result is a kind of compactness: a guttural groove so tight it helps Waits come off as a giant.
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75Overall, the album doesn't show quite the range that some of his previous works have done, but if you enjoy Waits, you're definitely not going to go wrong here.
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'Real Gone' is not by any means easy listening. It is, though, possibly a new type of music. [2 Oct 2004, p.64]
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The album feels only like an extension of the Alice / Blood Money plateau, rather than a new height for the artist. [#7]
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A semi-bizarre and semi-wonderful example of twisted, melted country-blues-psyche-pop oddballness.
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Real Gone is another provocative moment for Waits, one that has problems, but then, all his records do.
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A noisy, stamping, querulous assault on the senses that could have certainly benefited from more than a little editing.
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Much of Real Gone has been stripped so bare instrumentally that its heavy accumulation of rhythmic noise -- manipulated groans and grunts ("Metropolitan Glide") what sounds like a cracking horsewhip ("Don't Go Into The Barn") -- establishes a sustained, bristling mood that electrifies particular songs but bogs down the album as a whole.
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Real Gone is haunted-house music that invites listeners in for some shared uneasiness, but never lets them settle for long.
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Like an altar built of barbed wire, scrap metal and broken glass, "Real Gone" hammers ungraceful materials into something like beauty.
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70A spastically raw and cacophonous basement record. [#8, p.79]
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60Waits is still taking more risks than most US 'singer-songwriters' of his generation, and parts of this album rock righteously. It's just that some of Waits' musical modes... have been done before, and much better. By him. [Nov 2004, p.110]
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Waits retains his knack for recruiting world-class musicians... who can play like they're falling down the stairs of hell. [28 Oct 2004, p.98]
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Tough going and very samey, both in sonics and lyricism. Even if you enjoy the basic template, you may well run out of steam before the end.
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40Some of the most awkward, unapproachable music he's made. [Nov 2004, p.128]
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Hein10Forget all your **** up 80s revival bands. This is the real sugar!!!
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PaulS10
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sophiastar(israel)10