Brawlers presents probably the best-known of Tom Waits' personalities, filled as it is with vocal cord damage, found percussion, old-timey arrangements, and cartoon-buzz lead guitar. It's also the disc that flirts most dangerously with cliché, filled as it is with his well-trod inventory of Americana underbelly images: trains, jailhouses, barrooms, etc. However, the secret of Waits' act is how well he deploys these should-be-tired cultural touchstones; at the very least, he sounds more comfortable in the role of a boxcar-hopper than he does reciting the ripped-from-the-headlines Middle East folk song Road teo Peace. Certainly it helps that he continues to buck the aging rocker career trend of increasing cleanliness, wrapping these songs in dirt-grit production that keeps the Big Bopper warble of Lie to Me or the garage 12-bar Ramones cover The Return of Jackie and Judy from sounding like a House of Blues exhibit.

Tracklisting

Side 1

Lie To Me (Remastered)
LowDown (Remastered)
2:19 (Remastered)
Fish In The Jailhouse (Remastered)

Side 2

Bottom Of The World (Remastered)
Lucinda (Remastered)
Ain't Goin' Down To The Well (Remastered)
Lord I've Been Changed (Remastered)

Side 3

Puttin' On The Dog (Remastered)
Road To Peace (Remastered)
All The Time (Remastered)

Side 4

The Return Of Jackie And Judy (Remastered)
Walk Away (Remastered)
Sea Of Love (Remastered)
Buzz Fledderjohn (Remastered)
Rains On Me (Remastered)

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