Rain Dogs is the 9th album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in September 1985 on Island Records. A loose concept album about "the urban dispossessed" of New York City, Rain Dogs is generally considered the middle album of a trilogy that includes Swordfishtrombones and Franks Wild Years. The album, which includes appearances by guitarists Keith Richards and Marc Ribot, is noted for its broad spectrum of musical styles and genres, described by Rolling Stone as merging "Kurt Weill, pre-rock integrity from old dirty blues, the elegiac melancholy of New Orleans funeral brass, into a singularly idiosyncratic American style." The Read more on Last.fm.
The poetic, blood hunger of Waits mid 80’s songwriting cycle is still lingering, in his later work and in the various soundtracks that pull from it. The broken beauty of his voice, the urgent alliterations to Steinback, its all bubbling under the surface here, an instant classic for an age of unbelief.
I’ll always cite this as my favorite Tom Waits. “Clap Hands” is in my all-time top 5 favorite songs.
Probably his best? I don’t know.