The Miami Herald reviews Orphans!
Minneapolis Star Tribune POP/ROCK Tom Waits, "Orphans" (Anti-)
The moods on this three-CD boxed set range from cantankerous to sentimental to crazy. Through all 56 songs runs Waits' growl, which increasingly sounds more like a barnyard dog than a barroom drunk. Some of the tracks, such as the two Ramones covers, are songs Waits recorded earlier for various tribute albums and soundtracks. But 30 tunes are brand-spanking new, including the chilling "Road to Peace," an epic story about a Palestinian suicide bomber that's as close as Waits gets to real-world commentary and protest.
Most of the rest of the songs are more like old blues tunes or Childe ballads: as easily remnants of an earlier age as of Waits' fertile imagination. Trains, as usual, figure prominently; so do fish and children. The first CD, "Brawlers," captures Waits railing against the world and, frequently, God. By the second disc, "Bawlers," he's atoned, sounding rhapsodic, reverential and romantic. "Bastards" is a grab-bag of spoken-word, covers and ephemera. Overall, "Orphans" is more a coffee-table keepsake for the Waits completist than a must-have new statement from the prolific troubadour.
EVELYN MCDONNELL, MIAMI HERALD