Closing Time

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
It starts with a sunrise, it ends with "one star shining", and in between Closing Time contains an honest year's worth (1973, to be exact) of sweet, melodic, vintage Tom Waits--minus some of the vocal growl and thematic grit of his later stuff (but you can see it coming). Waltzes, lullabies, blues, jazz, you name it. Driving songs and drinking songs, even an honest to gosh country tune: "Rosie." There are torchers ("Lonely"), scorchers ("Ice Cream Man"), and back- porch senior citizen love songs ("Martha"): "Those were the days of roses/Poetry and prose, and/Martha, all I had was you and all you had was me." Other standouts are "I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love with You" (guess what--he does!) and "Grapefruit Moon", in which Waits croons: "Every time I hear that melody, something breaks inside." Hang on to your hearts and hats, folks. --Dan Leone

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-06-18 rating:
classic first album
I first heard "RainDogs" in the 1980's. We probably have most of Tom Waits' albums now. "Closing Time" remains an absolute classic and is highly recommended.. some plaintive tracks backed by piano and, of course, thoughtful lyrics and a great voice. I like his later albums too, but this is much more mellow. There isn't one bad song on the album, and that's why I rate it a "classic".

I just can't understand some of the negative listings on here... "almost a demo.. an album 'our' tom would prefer to forget." I just don't get it. It takes all sorts, really.

This is a great album

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review by: SMc date: 2008-04-01 rating:
Closing Time - The Best of Tom Waits ?
Quite simply - and like many artists with a first album - Tom Waits never improved upon this 1973 masterpiece. Sure "Small Change" from 1974 is good and the individual song, "Kentucky Avenue" (from "Blue Valentine")is heartbreakingly sad, but yet uplifting too.

[And along with Clifford T. Ward's "For Debbie And Her Friends" - from 1973's "Mantlepieces" album and Kenny Roger's "Ruby (Don't Take Your Love To Town from 1969) - are uplifting songs about people in wheelchairs.In CTW's case, his daughter.]

However "Closing Time" is as good a debut album as anyone could muster, even the instrumental title track. Now, my son thinks this is the worst and weakest of the Tom Waits canon, but he prefers the later albums which are too harsh and in some cases, even tuneless in my humble opinion. No, Waits never bettered this album and it's worth the accredited five stars.

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review by: date: 2008-02-07 rating:
Almost a demo
Probably an album our Tom would prefer to forget.

I started listening to TW about the time of Swordfishtrombones & worked my way back through his albums. Once I got to Closing Time, Asylum were trying to release Early Years much against TW's wishes & after listening to Closing Time I could understand why. It's vanilla & instantly forgettable against practically anything TW has produced since.

I dare say there will be some who will like this, but I'm guessing they will have Eagles Greatest Hits & Fleetwood Mac's Rumours near the front of their record collection too.

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review by: date: 2008-01-25 rating:
The American genius
You know how it happens. You hear an album by someone, and you think, I wonder what his earlier stuff was like?
I first got introduced to Tom Waits in Crete in 1980, listening to "the heart of saturday night" and I was hooked.
So I bought this. Its a bit more stripped down than the above, but in some ways cleaner. The man is, of course, a genius, and can bring tears to the eyes of anyone. I'm probably preaching to the converted, but the first time I heard "Martha" I cried. But for sheer beauty, nothing beats "Grapefruit Moon". I could go on but there is no point. Buy it. And revel in the real debut of a complete genius. All hail Mr Waits.



review by: date: 2007-09-06 rating:
Nowt as queer as folk...
I was gobsmacked to read one reviewer here saying they "can't see the attraction". This is one of my (and my wife's) most frequently played albums. This was our introduction to Tom Waits and though we have many other albums from across his varied repertoire, this is the one we enjoy most; some of the others impress, others interest, and others have their moments, but Closing Time will always be THE Waits album for me.

Hope this helps to introduce someone else to a huge talent.

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