I first heard this several years ago, and it still has not yet stopped growing on me. Right now it stands as my favorite release from Tom Waits, and that is for several reasons.

The pure feel of this album ranges from somber to playful and funny at the drop of a hat. The beginning two tracks are a great example of this. The soft and haunting Tom Traubert's Blues starts the album off with that somber note, but the album quickly changes directions with Step Right Up, which features a lively standing bass line along with some hilarious lyrics, most of them seem to be improvised, but I could be wrong. This album takes on many other faces throughout. There's the drunken afterhours at a bar feel, there's the walking down the street alone on a rainy night feel, and there's that classic feel like what you get on Jitterbug Boy.

As for the songs, I'll go through them one by one, just to give an idea of what they're like.

1. Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen): This is the classic Waltzing Matilda song done with a little of this and that thrown in, in Tom Waits fashion. However, the song keeps that somber feel and really comes out quite beautifully.

2. Step Right Up: A fun song, that up tempo bass line on the standing bass is accompanied by some Tom Waits bizarre lyrics, but done with such genius as well.

3. Jitterbug Boy: Another softer and more reflective type of song. The lyrics seem to be from someone who lived in the period when the jitterbug was the dance craze, and they speak of all of the things that the person has seen in their life. Another very beautiful song.

4. I Wish I Was in New Orleans: Another more somber song, more of the melodic Tom Waits. This one seems to be about what the title itself explains. Yet another of his more soothing works.

5. The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me): This one's one of his softer songs, but the lyrics make it quite a comedic piece. Basically a song that describes being pretty drunk in a New Orleans blues bar.

6. Invitation to the Blues: More of Tom's more bluesy stuff, this one's pretty slow and has a nice melody in a minor key.

7. Pasties and a G-String: Hilarious song with some of Tom's best lyrics ever. It's about watching strippers dance and such.

8. Bad Liver and a Broken Heart: Basically a slower song that reminds me of overdrinking and losing a lover. Soft and soothing.

9. The One that Got Away: Similar to the previous track, but without anything that reminds me of drinking and more spoken.

10. Small Change: The is another that seems to tell more of a story in that bluesy style that Tom Waits does so well.

11. I Can't Wait to Get Off Work: I think this song should be going through everyone's head around 4 PM on every Friday. Great way to end the album as well.

This album really covers quite a bit of ground in the Tom Waits spectrum, but it mostly focuses on his more melodic stuff, which is what he was doing a lot more of at that time. He does go a bit into some of the percussive stuff that he would do with many of his releases in the 80's, but really just touches on that. As a whole he really manages to take the listener through quite a bit with this one.

This isn't a review, but I just had to express my love and admiration for Tom. Not only this album, but everything he touches. Beautiful, haunting and worth every penny. He's a damn fine actor as well. Cheers!

Sometimes Tom Wait's 70's stuff sounds something like if you read Jack Kerouac over Kind Of Blue-era Miles Davis. If that's not enough to tempt you, he also has ballads that are musically rich, lyrically depthful and heartbreakingly beautiful all at once. Small Change is probably the most all-round example of this. If you want extremes, buy Nighthawks At The Diner for the former and Blue Valentine for the latter. Lot's of these tunes are already the stuff of legend - Tom Traubert's Blues, the title track, I Can't Wait To Get Off Work - but a lot of the gems on this you probably haven't heard of. I Wish I Was In New Orleans is perfection, no other word for it. Some may call this music too maudlin, too schmaltz - including Waits himself - but if you ignore the cynic inside of you, what you'll find is something that's not like any other record out there. There is no such thing as a bad Tom Waits record, and I'm not usually one to make such fanatic claims. Nowadays he's doing this great, mysterious, musically challenging and innovative thing. In the 80's he was mutating his 70's work into something very unique and magic indeed. In the 70's he was making music that made his world yours, completely sensational. Every song on Small Change is like a novel, every note is like gold. Listen to Invitation To The Blues, Bad Liver & A Broken Heart, Step Right Up - from ballads to beat, this guy is a heavyweight. Always has been, always will be.