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I have been asked a few times over the years, about a good album to begin with, if you want to get into Tom Waits, and up till now, it’s always been hard for me to pick one single album. No more. With the triple cd “Orphans”, Tom Waits has created an epic collection of songs spanning from the melancholy over the hopeful to the strange and disturbing. “Orphans” is a combination of new material and songs, that have previously only been released on soundtracks and similar periphery-albums.

When I heard, that the triple cd with 54 songs was coming out, I actually feared that the man, whose music I have loved for years, was finally going to disappoint me. After all, who has ever released such a massive semi-compilation and gotten away with it? Well, Tom Waits did it. And boy, did he ever get away with it.

The three cds are split into three distinct styles, all classic Waits. They’ve been labeled Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards, which covers the bluesy, barroom songs, the soulfull, often pianobased ballads and the experimental songs respectively. In total, what you get is three hours of poetry and music.

Now, it is hard for me to find the words to truly describe just how fantastic this collection is. It is, I think, the most definitive release in Waits’s career. It is truly a masterpiece. A work that deserves a place in music history. If Tom Waits stopped making music today, I would say that he quit at the top of his game. Or any game for that matter.

I won’t go so far as to say, that it replaces his back catalog. Classic albums, such as “Small Change”, “Swordfishtrombones” and “Rain Dogs” still stand as powerful albums, and it is perhaps in comparison to these, that “Orphans” truly shines. It becomes obvious what an incredible journey Waits has taken. And what a journey he has taken us on with him, on creaking pirate ships, through dark lands with murderous characters and wise hobos, to the gutter where you’re only as good as your next drink and to that diner, where the waitress is everything you ever wanted. These are all recurring themes from both the early stuff and the new songs. But the combination of these lyrics and the music, that has truly found its own sound over the past 15 years, that is what makes the mythical being that is Tom Waits.

“Orphans” is an album that has so much to offer, that you can listen to it for years and still find new nuggets of gold. That is, if anything, a true rarity in these days of here-today-gone-in-half-an-hour pop music.

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