Five Tom Waits albums released by Island Records in the 1980s and 90s are being reissued with fresh remasters.
The archival campaign kicks off on September 1st with 1983’s Swordfishtrombones, 1985’s Rain Dogs, and 1987’s Franks Wild Years. Reissues of 1992’s Bone Machine and 1993’s The Black Rider will follow on October 6th.
All of the albums have been newly remastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering under the guidance of Waits’ longtime audio engineer, Karl Derfler. According to a press release, Swordfishtrombones was sourced from the original EQ’ed ½” production master tapes, while Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Bone Machine, and The Black Rider were sourced from the original ½” flat master tapes. Bellman remastered the audio in high resolution 192 kHz/24-bit.
The new vinyl editions will come with specially made labels featuring photos of Waits from each era in addition to artwork and packaging recreated to replicate the original LPs, which have been out of print since their initial release. Notably, The Black Rider and Bone Machine were never released on vinyl outside of Europe, which means these records will receive their vinyl debut in most of the world.
Along with the CD and vinyl releases, all five remastered albums will be available to stream digitally as of today. You can find pre-order and streaming links for each reissue here.
Earlier this year, Waits marked the 50th anniversary of his debut album, Closing Time, with a new reissue. As for the possibility of new music, his music agent, Paul Charles, recently revealed that Waits is “writing again.”