"The language of Tom Waits is allegorical, playful, and fairy-tale-like. He has the gift of weaving metaphors from children's songs, from the way circus barkers speak, from established blues expressions, and boasts from Mississippi. Tom Waits is renowned for his beautiful melodies and lyrics.

Without abandoning either of these two talents, in Swordfishtrombones he creates a sexy, disjointed, relentlessly rhythmic chassis made of washboards, wagon wheels, and bed springs. It is not hard to imagine Swordfishtrombones as a boxing match between Kurt Weill and Nino Rota, with glockenspiel bars flying from the orchestra while Howlin' Wolf announces each round." David Smay is a writer and pop culture critic based in San Francisco.