2007 in Review: The "Heaviest Fucking Tom Waits-Related Project EVER" Award

This award, given to the record which gets most of its listeners from its association with Tom Waits but that will scare the living crap out of the average Tom Waits fan, goes to:



Traineater
Book of Knots
Arclight

Now, I've already written about this album once, so I'll keep this brief. Traineater probably features the best assembly of diverse talents in years. Very few "supergroups," or albums with a lot of guest appearances, are so artistically coherent. Simply put, the core group came together having already worked with a variety of musical organizations that were each distinct in their own style and exploratory in their ambitions. Having then gotten an idea of what they were doing together, they pulled in the absolute best names they could possibly get to perfect that vision. Despite the fact that they have each accomplished a hell of a lot on their own, there is no doubtin my mind that people like Tom Waits, Carla Bozulich, John Langford, Zeena Parkins, Miek Watt, David Thomas (Pere Ubu), Norman Westberg (Swans) and all th erest were brought in to serve the collective good of the album, not to reshape it. The result is an album that is alternately creeping and overpowering in its intensity, flawless in its execution, and both a mentally and emotionally satisfying collection of music.