10 Darkest Rock Music Albums Of The 80s
6. Rain Dogs - Tom Waits
It's going to take a genuine musical scholar to be able to describe the genre of Tom Waits' music in less than one sentence. Ever since turning the corner in the '80s, this is the kind of wild freakout music that even manages to give people like Captain Beefheart a run for his money in spots. Before stuff like Bone Machine put our heads through a blender though, Waits hit that sour middle ground on Rain Dogs.
From the opening sounds of this album, this feels like the most unprofessionally recorded record of all time, with the percussion almost sounding like they could have been played on cardboard boxes. That ramshackle feel is just the beginning of the madness though, with Waits contorting his voice from one song to another, whether that means adopting a lisp or sounding like a demon screaming from the bowels of Hell.
Even with the more accessible sounds of Downtown Train, this is still pretty left field of the glossy sounds of the '80s, with Waits getting more and more chaotic as the album plays out. If anything, this feels like a look into the mind of a psychopath who just so happened to decide to make music instead of killing passersby. Above all else though, this is the version of Tom Waits that eventually led to Heath Ledger cribbing some of his mannerisms for his classic iteration of the Joker in the Dark Knight. I don't think you can come up with a better version of darkness if you tried.