Swordfishtrombones

The album marks the beginning of Waits's eclectic use of instruments. As he put it in a contemporary interview: "Some of the stuff I think is a bit of a departure for me. The instrumentation is all different, and no saxophones. I used the banjo, accordion, bass-marimba, metal aunglongs, you know, African squeeze drum, a calliope, a harmonium. So some of the stuff is a little more exotic."{{cite web| title=Tom Waits - Instruments| url=http://tomwaitslibrary.info/biography/quotes/instruments/|website=Tomwaitslibrary.info}}

Swordfishtrombones also represented a lyrical departure. Per AllMusic,

Lyrically, Waits' tales of the drunken and the lovelorn have been replaced by surreal accounts of people who burned down their homes and of Australian towns bypassed by the railroad -- a world (not just a neighborhood) of misfits now have his attention. The music can be primitive, moving to odd time signatures, while Waits alternately howls and wheezes in his gravelly bass voice. He seems to have moved on from Hoagy Carmichael and Louis Armstrong to Kurt Weill and Howlin' Wolf (as impersonated by Captain Beefheart).{{cite web| title=Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones Album Reviews, Songs & More| website=AllMusic| url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/swordfishtrombones-mw0000192781}}

The cover art is a TinTone photograph by Michael A. Russ{{cite web | title=Michael A. Russ' TinTone homepage | url=http://www.tintones.com/about.html|website=Tintones.com | accessdate=February 29, 2016}}{{cite web | title='TinTones – Rough Print' exhibition by Michael A. Russ | url=http://www.art-place-berlin.com/english/02pastprojects/past7.html | accessdate=November 14, 2012}} showing Waits with the actors Angelo Rossitto and Lee Kolima.{{Cite book|title=Tom Waits' Swordfishtrombones|last=Smay|first=David|publisher=Continuum|year=2008|isbn=978-1-4411-7459-8|location=New York|pages=11–12}}

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/swordfishtrombones-mw0000192781 |title=Swordfishtrombones – Tom Waits |website=AllMusic |access-date=November 17, 2015 |last=Ruhlmann |first=William}}

| rev2 = Blender

| rev2score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Tom Waits |magazine=Blender |volume=6 |issue=2 |date=March 2007 |last=Smith |first=RJ |pages=150–151}}

| rev3 = Houston Chronicle

| rev3score = {{Rating|4|4}}{{cite news |url=https://www.chron.com/entertainment/music/article/The-best-and-not-so-best-of-Tom-Waits-1504310.php |title=The best (and not-so-best) of Tom Waits |newspaper=Houston Chronicle |date=November 19, 2006 |access-date=December 11, 2021 |last=Dansby |first=Andrew}}

| rev4 = Mojo

| rev4score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones |magazine=Mojo |issue=200 |date=July 2010 |last=Male |first=Andrew |page=77}}

| rev5 = Q

| rev5score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |title=Tom Waits: Swordfishtrombones |magazine=Q |issue=73 |date=October 1992 |page=100}}

| rev6 = Rolling Stone

| rev6score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/swordfishtrombones-246728/ |title=Swordfishtrombones |magazine=Rolling Stone |issue=409 |date=November 24, 1983 |access-date=October 24, 2011 |last=Shewey |first=Don |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110092643/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/swordfishtrombones-246728/ |archive-date=November 10, 2021 |url-status=live}}

| rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev7score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite book |chapter=Tom Waits |last1=Coleman |first1=Mark |last2=Scoppa |first2=Bud |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor1-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/854 854–855]}}

| rev8 = Select

| rev8score = 5/5{{cite magazine |title=Tom Waits: Rain Dogs / Swordfishtrombones |magazine=Select |issue=32 |date=February 1993 |last=Collis |first=Andrew |page=82}}

| rev9 = Uncut

| rev9score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite magazine |title=What Is He Building in There..? |magazine=Uncut |issue=175 |date=December 2011 |last=Gill |first=Andy |pages=52–53}}

| rev10 = The Village Voice

| rev10score = A−{{cite news |url=https://robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv3-84.php |title=Christgau's Consumer Guide |newspaper=The Village Voice |date=March 24, 1984 |access-date=December 8, 2011 |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau}}

}}

Swordfishtrombones was ranked the second best album of 1983 by NME.{{cite web |url=https://www.nme.com/features/1983-2-1045394 |title=NME's best albums and tracks of 1983 |website=NME |date=October 10, 2016 |access-date=March 13, 2018}} In 1989, Spin named Swordfishtrombones the second greatest album of all time.{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-bxxO5B-xsC&pg=PA46 |title=The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time |magazine=Spin |volume=5 |issue=1 |date=April 1989 |access-date=August 14, 2007 |pages=46–48, 50–51}} Pitchfork ranked it at number 11 in its 2002 list of the best albums of the 1980s.{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-top-100-albums-of-the-1980s/?page=9 |title=The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s |website=Pitchfork |date=November 21, 2002 |access-date=January 28, 2020 |page=9}} In 2006, Q listed it as the 36th best album of the 1980s,{{cite magazine |title=40 Best Albums of the '80s |magazine=Q |issue=241 |date=August 2006 |pages=84–89}} while in 2012, Slant Magazine listed it as the decade's 26th best album.{{cite web |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/best-albums-of-the-1980s/ |title=The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s |website=Slant Magazine |date=March 5, 2012 |access-date=July 9, 2012}} In 2000, it was voted number 374 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.{{cite book |title=All Time Top 1000 Albums |title-link=All Time Top 1000 Albums |last=Larkin |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Larkin |publisher=Virgin Books |edition=3rd |year=2000 |isbn=0-7535-0493-6 |page=144}} Elvis Costello included Swordfishtrombones on his list of essential albums, highlighting "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six" and "In the Neighborhood".{{cite magazine| last=Costello| first=Elvis| title=Elvis Costello's 500 Must-Have Albums, from Rap to Classical| magazine=Vanity Fair| url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2000/11/elvis-costello-500-favorite-albums}}

Jim Sclavunos recalls

Swordfishtrombones was a bombshell to say the least. That an artist with a gift for writing tunes so evocative of memories real and imagined would decisively rend the fabric of his well-established image, and trade in coolly louche atmospherics for neon-lit junkyard sonic grotesquery was a perverse strategy that I couldn’t help admiring. These no-holds-barred albums set the stage for the years of innovation upon innovation that followed.

All tracks written by Tom Waits.

Side one

1. "Underground" – 1:58
2. "Shore Leave" – 4:12
3. "Dave the Butcher" (instrumental) – 2:15
4. "Johnsburg, Illinois" – 1:30
5. "16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six" – 4:30
6. "Town with No Cheer" – 4:22
7. "In the Neighborhood" – 3:04

Side two

1. "Just Another Sucker on the Vine" (instrumental) – 1:42
2. "Frank's Wild Years" – 1:50
3. "Swordfishtrombone" – 3:00
4. "Down, Down, Down" – 2:10
5. "Soldier's Things" – 3:15
6. "Gin Soaked Boy" – 2:20
7. "Trouble's Braids" – 1:18
8. "Rainbirds" (instrumental) – 3:05

• Tom Waits – vocals (1:1–2, 1:4–7, 2:2–7), chair (1:2), Hammond B-3 organ (1:3), piano (1:4, 2:5, 2:8), harmonium (1:6, 2:1), synthesizer (1:6), freedom bell (1:6)
• Victor Feldman – bass marimba (1:1–2), marimba (1:2, 2:3), shaker (1:2), bass drum with rice (1:2), bass boo bams (1:3), Brake drum (1:5), bell plate (1:5), snare (1:5, 2:4), Hammond B-3 organ (1:7), snare drum (1:7), bells (1:7), conga (2:3), bass drum (2:3), Dabuki drum (2:3), tambourine (2:4), African talking drum (2:7)
• Larry Taylor – acoustic bass (1:1–2, 1:5, 1:7, 2:2, 2:4, 2:6–7), electric bass (2:3)
• Randy Aldcroft – baritone horn (1:1, 1:7), trombone (1:2)
• Stephen Taylor Arvizu Hodges – drums (1:1–2, 1:5, 2:4, 2:6), parade drum (1:7), cymbals (1:7), parade bass drum (2:7), glass harmonica (2:8)
• Fred Tackett – electric guitar (1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 2:6), banjo (1:2)
• Francis Thumm – metal aunglongs (1:2), glass harmonica (2:8)
• Greg Cohen – bass (1:4), acoustic bass (2:3, 2:5, 2:8)
• Joe Romano – trombone (1:5), trumpet (2:1)
• Anthony Clark Stewart – bagpipes (1:6)
• Clark Spangler – synthesizer program (1:6)
• Bill Reichenbach Jr. – trombone (1:7)
• Dick Hyde – trombone (1:7)
• Ronnie Barron – Hammond organ (2:2)
• Eric Bikales – organ (2:4)
• Carlos Guitarlos – electric guitar (2:4)
• Richard Gibbs – glass harmonica (2:8)

• Recorded by Tim Boyle and Biff Dawes.
• Mixed by Dawes at Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, CA.

{{Certification Table Top}}

{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|award=Silver|type=album|artist=Tom Waits|title= Swordfishtrombones|relyear=1993|certyear=2013|id=10091-3029-2|access-date=November 11, 2023}}

{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}

Mike, Tom, and Crow sing "Underground" on Wanda's arrival in Atlantis in the 1993 Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Alien from L.A.". The song was used for the Chop Shop theme in the 2005 movie Robots.

"Soldier's Things" was covered by Paul Young on his 1985 album The Secret of Association, and is used in the 2005 movie Jarhead.

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Category:Tom Waits albums

Category:1983 albums

Category:Island Records albums