Nighthawks at the Diner

I need to be in the right mood for it, and it's certainly not my favorite Waits, but I still do enjoy it.

4/5

*brews coffee* "Oooh, what a sunny Wednesday morning. I wonder what 1001 albums will throw my way this morning"

Oh.

This started out great, with Tom Waits' sardonic humour shining through and serving as the key draw of the songs, where the instrumentation acted as more of a base to keep things subtly ticking along. Before too long, however, it really did start becoming samey and fatiguing, and it's 73 minutes in length so it's an experience I'm unlikely to want to repeat. There are far better and more engaging Tom Waits albums out there, as I've come to establish through my own exploration.

I'm not really into it. I like the idea, but it's all very samey.

I really don't understand why people are cheering, laughing and clapping at him saying the most inane shit.

It's much better when he gets into actual songs. If you cut out all the bullshit chatter then it might get an extra star.

Welp... it's another concept album. It did have a funny joke, so that was nice. But I think this is totally an album that you don't need to listen to before you die, even if it's not that bad of a listen.

It's not even unpleasant to listen to or anything. I just wouldn't ever want to. And Tom Waits is not even remotely funny or interesting despite his best efforts.

Amazing

very funny, groovy, unconventional

My least favourite of his 70s albums. Fine to go conceptual with the live in the studio as a jazz club thing capturing Waits' with an audience but he just didn't have the songs this time to pull it off. I can also understand why its uniqueness would be catnip to music writers. However, Small Change would be a much better choice.

A pseudo live album that's a real blast, you can tell Tom is feeling the crowd assembled in his fake smoky jazz club as he tells his stories preambling into the actual song.

Three more Tom Waits albums to go which means three more worst days of my life

Brilliant concept and execution. Waits is at his most melodious and entertaining. He hadn’t yet turned to the abrasive and abstract sound characteristic of his later and more well known period.

Konseptet er gøy, og jeg får faktisk følelsen av å sitte på en sliten, røykfylt jazzklubb. Men som på en ekte jazzklubb kjeder jeg meg midtveis og lengter etter å gå ut med røykerne for å få et avbrekk og sosialisere.

Føler jeg burde like Tom Waits bedre, men det blir liksom aldri meg og han.

Særlig på "Nighthawk Postcards" og "Warm Beer and Cold Women" høres han ut som Daffy Duck

2.6

While I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as Rain Dogs Tom Waits really shows off his personality and humor here while creating really great imagery through his lyrics. Music for rainy nights watching movies that don’t exist. I was so ready to compare this to that famous painting of the diner at night until I googled that painting and realized what was going on and how stupid I am. I am art illiterate. Favorite songs were Eggs and Sausage, Better Off Without A Wife, and Putnam County.

The worst one so far

It’s a comedy show

Nighthawks At The Diner is an album i really enjoyed. This is one of the few albums that isn't as good as it is due to the songs alone but rather, due to how well they connect with each other. This album was partially a studio album that was made to simulate a live album where it was recorded over 4 sessions in front of an audience to simulate the feeling of a jazz club. I think it actually captures the feeling of a jazz club very well and the music and Waits' vocals and lyrics/commentary really added to the album. I don't really know if i can single out one song as being the best/worst but i do know that this album comes together very smoothly.
Best Song: Spare Parts I (A Nocturnal Emission)
Worst Song: Eggs And Sausage (In A Cadillac With Susan Michelson)

Fantastic. It's like I'm at a jazz bar and just letting Waits' gruff charisma wash over me. Proof that you don't need a pop voice to be a compelling singer.

Jedino zbog čega ovaj album nije nešto najgore što sam ikad čula je ovaj fini jazz iza njegovog prokletog brbljanja i keslanja.