March 2023, marks fifty years since Tom Waits released his landmark debut album âClosing Timeâ. Called âa minor key masterpiece filled with songs of late-night lonelinessâ by All Music Guide, âClosing Timeâ features the distinctly lyrical storytelling and blending of jazz, blues and folk styles that would come to be associated first with Waits. In honour of this occasion, Anti- will be collecting and sharing untold stories, rare photos and more.
The albumâs 50th-anniversary vinyl will be available in black and clear versions as a double 180g LP cut at 45 RPM with half-speed mastering by Londonâs Abbey Road Studios. The gatefold jacket was also specially created with thicker board and black poly-lined inner sleeves.
PRE-ORDER ‘CLOSING TIME’Â HERE
In Rolling Stoneâs original 1973 review of the record, writer Stephen Holden immediately detects elements of pathos and bathos that will be poured over by fans and journalists in Waitsâs records for years to come, saying that Waits âparodies the lounge music sub-genre so perfectly that we wonder if heâs putting us on or if heâs for real, and it is his especial triumph that in the end, he has it both ways: He is able to deliver whole both the truth and the sham of the music.â
âClosing Timeâ has become a cornerstone of his fansâ milieu and has been endlessly covered by other artists, most famously the Eagles (Olâ55) and most recently on a 2021 covers album featuring Jeff Tweedy and Andrew Bird.
Included in Rolling Stoneâs 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time and a 2011 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Waitsâs âClosing Timeâ began the career of one of the all-time greatest artists and an exploration of blues, folk and experimental music that can’t be replicated.
