Reviews
Ranked #23 in Rolling Stone's '50 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "Tom Waits sings in a heartbreaking growl on this vocally dynamic, emotionally direct album, one of his best.", Ranked #13 in Uncut's '50 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "Exuberant, tender, truly idiosyncratic, Wait's first album of new songs in seven years was a stunner.", "BAD AS ME is the sound of a supremely confident artist convening a raucous celebration of his own myth, and is multifariously marvelous.", 4 stars out of 5 -- "BAD AS ME is shot through with rockabilly verve; 'Get Lost' bursts with youthful abandon, as if releasing the pent-up urges of a generation of 50s teens...", "Bad As Me Sounds like a Welcome Echo of Rain Dogs' Spellbinding Urban Magic Realism.", "The love songs are chastened, the anger is tar-black but contained, the verbal play not done for show but intimate, a gift to another....BAD AS ME might be his best ever.", "BAD AS ME burns at fuse speed, beginning with 'Chicago,' which sounds like it starts in the middle...", 4 stars out of 5 -- "It's a kick to hear him serving the needs of his songs without dressing them up in identical work clothes....BAD AS ME is alive with some of his greatest yet.", Ranked #2 in Magnet's '20 Best Albums Of 2011' -- "Waits is a hands-on technician; he rips the tires off the car and burns the rubber down.", 4 stars out of 5 -- "BAD AS ME works as Waits' 'greatest methods collection, encapsulating familiar m.o.'s as fractured grooves, rough-hewn, smoky yearning, dive-bar juke-joint shuffles, backstreet swagger and existentialist-loser paeans.", 4 stars out of 5 -- "At its heart are electric guitars. Marc Ribot's jagged, Cuban-tinged riffs have helped define Waits' sound since the 1980s.", "One thing you cant' fake: Wait's personal universe, full of carnies, dust, tears, whiskey, and hope. And yes, a whole lot of growling." -- Grade: A-
