Blood Money is etched. It's scratched out in bold, dark lines with marimba, trumpet and bass clarinet and contains some of Tom Waits' most memorable melodies. The songs are declarative, sardonic, unforgiving, musical dispatches from the bottom of the heap.


"'Blood Money' is flesh and bone, earthbound," said Waits. "The songs are rooted in reality: jealousy, rage, the human meat wheel...They are more carnal. I like a beautiful song that tells you terrible things. We all like bad news out of a pretty mouth. I like songs to sound as though they've been aging in a barrel and distressed."

"Blood Money" careens from the brutal to the tender with assaulting rhythms and romantic melodies. It's a grim musical deposition on the human condition, a dark mortality play where Tin Pan Alley meets the Weimer Republic.