TOM WAITS
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
Producers: various
Epitaph
Release Date: Nov. 21

Waits swings for the fences and scores on this set with 56 songs (30 new recordings), each of the three CDs divided by theme. Disc one, "Brawlers," is Waits the ever-idiosyncratic but deep-rooted junkyard rocker; "Lie to Me" captures the rocketship rockabilly Suicide strove for; "Low Down" pushes like an "Exile on Main Street" outtake. Though Waits and partner Kathleen Brennan wrote the vast majority of tunes on the three discs, "The Return of Jackie and Judy" is a jaw-drop cover of a Ramones tune that Waits transforms into something out of Little Richard. "Bawlers" has more sentimental material, everything from lullabye ("Bend Down the Branches") to tango to Sinatra's "Young at Heart" to another Ramones song ("Danny Says"). "Bastards" is all over the literary and musical map, highlighted by the original sassy S&M show tune "Altar Boy" and including Brecht-Weill's "What Keeps Mankind Alive," sung with stunning dramatic eloquence. Vast in scope, rich in trope and full of hope. -- Wayne Robins