MULE VARIATIONS

MULE VARIATIONS

• Shrink-wrapped

Seven years passed between the release of <i>Bone Machine</i> and <i>Mule Variations</i>. During that time Tom Waits eschewed cutting another "conventional" (the term used loosely here) song collection, occupying his time with acting projects, a soundtrack (<i>Night on Earth</i>), a stage project (<i>The Black Rider</i>), and sundry smaller diversions. What's surprising about <i>Mule Variations</i> is how little he's strayed from the old <i>Bone</i> yard through the years. As with his Grammy-winning 1992 outing, Waits intersperses the tough and the tender, mixing exercises in creative noisemaking with tunes that fall on just the right side of maudlin. As with <i>Bone Machine</i>'s "The Ocean Doesn't Want Me," "What's He Building?" is an experiment in word jazz that owes a debt to its creator, Ken Nordine. Waits has again assembled a crew of attuned sidemen (including Primus and steadfast backers Ralph Carney, Larry Taylor, and Joe Gore). And, as always, Waits and his wife-cosongwriter-coproducer Kathleen Brennan exhibit an uncanny ear for the arcane. In the end, <i>Mule Variations</i> is the aural equivalent of a salvage shop that, while largely familiar, still has a few secluded chambers and trap doors. <I>--Steven Stolder</I>