Tom Waits: Frank's Wild Years (LP)

"Frank's Wild Years" is an adaptation of the musical of the same name, starring Tom Waits. The title of the album refers to a track included on the album "Swordfishtrombones". Franks Wild Years was released in 1987 on Island Records and is the 10th studio album by Tom Waits. Franks Wild Years is named after the play of the same name by Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan and was performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 1986. Franks Wild Years is a reprise of the play "Frank's Wild Years" from Waits' 1983 album Swordfishtrombones. The album neatly divides the story into two acts, and although the title is "un operachi romantic," there is no opera in Franks. There is a fun touch of operatic style from Waits himself in the song "Temptation." His vocal character varies wildly throughout the work's 17 songs and is no more impressive than when the gruff, cantankerous singer transitions to impeccable Sinatra-esque phrasing on the Vegas number "Straight To The Top." While Franks performed on stage with a 14-piece cast, the album is pure Waits, suggesting a variety of characters through his chameleon voice. The album is a startling collection of lost dreams, bad dreams and dreams that may not even be dreams. The music is nightmarish, ethereal and beautiful. Think broken calliopes played by genius children, horns played at dawn in a graveyard, banjos seeping through the walls of the practice room. The titles recall Frank's odyssey through the cheap stores: "Straight To The Top", "Blow Wind Blow", "Temptation", "I'll Be Gone". The NME named the work the fifth best album of 1987.