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I love Tom Waits. I love Tom Waits and I never listen to him because the dark corners of Mule Variations scare me so much on nights home alone, and though Rain Dogs is a tremendous piece of artistry, I always find myself distracted one third of the way through.

This song, “I Wish I Was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)” is tremendous. We hardly hear the growl of Tom counting in his lush piano work with street swings behind, and the song sets up like some sort of lush slow dance. And maybe it is, but the alcoholic whose voice we hear – straining for sweetness on the first note - just under a minute in, is not the chanteuse we expect.

Like so many of Waits’ songs, it reminisces about booze and brothers-in-arms, but it’s hard to tell why he struck this tone for this town. It’s a nod to jazz, what with the saxophone work, perhaps, but what else is it?