Mule Variations

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Apr 14 1999

Overview Edit

Mule Variations is an album by Tom Waits, released 1999 on the ANTI- label. It was Waits's first studio album since 1992's Bone Machine (the later The Black Rider was a collection of songs originally written for a play). It won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and was nominated for Best Male Rock Performance for the track "Hold On". It also sold more than 500,000 copies world wide.

The album was backed by an extensive tour of Europe and North America during the summer and autumn of 1999, which was Waits's first proper tour since 1987. Other promotional stops included a solo performance on VH1 Storytellers.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 416 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule_Variations. Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
Catalog number:
86547-2
Release dates:
  • Apr 20 1999 in Europe
  • Apr 27 1999 in United States

Genres

Blues, Experimental Rock, Folk-Rock, Rock, Singer-Songwriter. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

5 stars Get on this mule and ride. . .
"Mule Variations" is, simply, the most solid piece of work Tom Waits has released since "Rain Dogs". That's not to say I didn't enjoy "Frank's Wild Years" and "Bone Machine"; they both, however, only serve as sketches of the fleshed-out world Waits presents us with here.

From the opening track 'Big in Japan' (a track quite reminiscent of "Bone Machine's" 'Goin' Out West')to the closing 'Come On Up to the House,' Waits is in rare form lyrically and vocally. And he's even added a new twist to his …
Written by Wilbur Farley
2 stars unfortunately uninspired...
Owning every Tom Waits album,I really wanted to like this one, but I didn't. It just falls flat. Of course there are a couple of good ones (it IS Mr. Waits after all). But on the whole, it's not a must have. Get Swordfishtrombones if your searching for a begining in his hobo-tramp years, or The Heart of a Saturday Night for his beatnik-piano-man years.

I hate to let one song ruin an album for me, but "what's he building in there?" does just that. The song reminds me simultaneously of this old Sa…
Written by an unknown author

Track listing Edit

  • CD

    format:
    number:
    title:
    number name artist hh:mm:ss
    1
    Big in Japan
    4:05
    2
    Lowside of the Road
    2:59
    3
    Hold On
    5:33
    4
    Get Behind the Mule
    6:52
    5
    House Where Nobody Lives
    4:14
    6
    Cold Water
    5:23
    7
    Pony
    4:32
    8
    What's He Building?
    3:20
    9
    Black Market Baby
    5:02
    10
    Eyeball Kid
    4:25
    11
    Picture in a Frame
    3:39
    12
    Chocolate Jesus
    3:55
    13
    Georgia Lee
    4:24
    14
    Filipino Box Spring Hog
    3:09
    15
    Take It With Me
    4:24
    16
    Come on Up to the House
    4:36

Credits Edit

  1. engineer

    1. Chris Bellman [mastering]
    2. Jacquire King [recording and mix]
    3. Oz Fritz [recording and mix]
  1. producer

Other versions Edit

18 tracks format: 1 x CD
release dates: Apr 14 1999 in Japan
view details
Mule Variations 16 tracks format: 1 x vinyl
record label: ANTI-
release dates: Oct 1 2004
view details
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