New Year's Eve - Bad As Me [426]

At the end of the album-proper, Andrea, Martin and Sam consider the festive season as well as all its associated traumas. We return to Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones as well as 1970s Tom Waits, debating possible autobiographical elements, poverty tourism, and which lullaby is best used to ring in the new year.

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
New Year's Eve, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011)

Just For Now, Speak For Yourself, Imogen Heap (2005)

A Sight For Sore Eyes, Foreign Affairs, Tom Waits (1977)

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Hell Broke Luce - Bad As Me [425]

With serious discussion of disturbing events from the start, Andrea illuminates for Sam and Martin some of the context for this song of military trauma. We consider musical presentation of problems and solutions to injustice, sonic and lyrical density, and Waits’s political engagement more broadly 

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Hell Broke Luce, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011)

The Ground Truth trailer, dir. Patricia Foulkrod (2006)

Universal Soldier, It's My Way, Buffy Sainte-Marie (1964)

Song 33, single, Noname (2020)

Snow On Tha Bluff, single, J. Cole (2020)

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Last Leaf - Bad As Me [424]

We’re heading towards conclusions, both in albums and in life, as Andrea Warner joins with Martin and Sam to examine another Tom and Keith team up. The hubris of Waits’s sentiments, the juxtaposition of humour and pain in music, and a consideration of vestigial tails all feature in this week’s discussion. 

Music extracts used for illustrative/review purposes include:
Last Leaf, Bad As Me, Tom Waits (2011)

Pale Green Things, The Sunset Tree, The Mountain Goats (2005)

Pocket Narratives from the Mountain Goats, NPR Interview with Linda Wertheimer (2005)

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