Tom Waits is one of the most influential musicians in the world today, an artist who never rests on his laurels. He continues to reinvent music, push boundaries, and create new sounds. On "Real Gone," the up-tempo tracks are some of the rawest and most kinetic he's ever laid down. He's never sounded like he's had this much fun, while the ballads are among his most beautiful and even chilling at times. The 15 tracks feature primal blues, Jamaican rock-steady grooves, rhythms and melodies both African and Latin, what Waits calls "cubist funk" and "human beatboxing," and for the first time, no piano. "Real Gone" also contains his first overtly political song, "The Day After Tomorrow," a plaintive letter home from a young soldier in the middle of a war. As a whole, the experience is breathtaking.