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Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards is a limited edition three CD set by Tom Waits, released by the ANTI- label on November 17, 2006 in Europe and on November 21, 2006 in the United States.
The album is divided into three sections, with each disc being a separate collection in its own. It borrows from Tom Waits’ typical rock sound, with the first disc being blues and rock-based, the second centred on slow-tempo, melancholic ballads, and the third on more experimental compositions. Additionally, the record contains influences of other genres, including folk, gospel, jazz and roots music. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards received universal acclaim from critics, who lauded its experimentation and composition, as well as Waits' vocals. It was listed as one of the highest-scoring albums of the year in Metacritic, and won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Furthermore, it was a fair commercial success, charting in the United States Billboard 200, as well as in Australia, Switzerland and Austria, reaching the top twenty in the latter.
The Orphans Tour was conducted in support of the album prior to its release.
User Album Review
Pictured on the sleeve in daguerreotype sepia surrounded by the ghosts of America’s alternative cultural history, Waits has now firmly sealed his place as one of the USA’s major storytellers. Orphans, containing rarities, reworkings and new material, beautifully demonstrates how he uses just about every native musical form of expression to achieve this high standing. These aren’t offcuts, but prime Tom.
This box set is handily split into three themed parts: Brawlers being composed of mutant rockabilly jive suffused with the spirit of the Mississippi delta, Gene Vincent and all points in between; Bawlers is the softer side of Tom’s muse, containing ballads and laments; meanwhile Bastards is the most intriguing set, filled with Brechtian cabaret, strange tales, jokes and the most disturbing version of “Heigh Ho” (from Hal Willner’s Disney project, Stay Awake) that you’ll ever hear.
Shot through with the grime of gutter life and the fairy dust of magical, violent realism, Waits and wife Kathleen Brennan’s ‘strange couplings’ (as he puts it) seem sometimes madly anachronistic yet utterly relevant. This set even contains what could be termed as Tom’s first ‘protest song’ in “The Road To Peace”. So, something for every type of Tom Waits fan and easily up there with his best work. Essential.
--Chris Jones, BBC
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