It's a very listenable album but Tom Waits is such a unique/distinctive artist that I think it's nigh on impossible to improve on the originals ....for me, the only exception to this is The Ramones cover of I Dont Wanna Grow Up...which brims with their trademark brattish energy.....agree with you on the ballad point though - followed his whole career but nothing beats the brokenhearted barfly of his Asylum albums
I know what you mean about his uniqueness and agree that Ramones cover is great - it sounds almost like he wrote it for them. I love the stripped back minimal arrangements of the songs on this album, and the female voices take some of the songs in slightly different directions. As you say, very listenable. I have taken to listening to music to help me fall asleep during the lockdown and this is a great record for drifting off too.
Some of his later albums are ace, but I also tend to prefer the early Asylum ones. Heart of Saturday Night is my favourite. There are some fantastic ballads on the later albums too though: Johnsburg Illinois, Georgia Lee, Fannin Street being three examples.
One of the best songwriters of the 20th century in my opinion.
