In the neighbourhood

I bought it on iTunes around a year ago and today it came on Shuffle. 'In the neighbourhood' is the great Tom Waits at his most effervescent, his most gleeful and his most optimistic. But it's no bubblegum pop, it's no jaunty dance-around and it's for sure not common chart fare. Lyrically abstract it maybe, but it's a grand story, as good as Waits tells them.

Sometimes Shuffle will just get it spot on. I lived in France in the mid-80s and left home with a Walkman and fifteen C90 tapes, of albums and radio picks. It would take a good shuffle around in the rucksack to find the right track for the journey, the a fast-forward or a rewind. Something altogether better in the experience and anticipation, but not in the convenience. Phone on, music, artists, Tom Waits, or Blue Nile or Stevie or Marvin. Or Shuffle and enjoy the lot and more. And the joy of In the neighbourhood coming on for the first time in an age.

Next track next time.