"This pivotal work refines the music that has come before and signals a new direction. Waits, in possibly the finest voice of his career, worked with a veteran team of gifted musicians and longt-ime co-writer/producer Kathleen Brennan. From the opening horn-fueled chug of Chicago,' to the closing barroom chorale of New Year's Eve,' Bad As Me displays the full career range of Waits' songwriting, from beautiful ballads like Last Leaf,' to the avant cinematic soundscape of Hell Broke Luce,' a battlefront dispatch".