Editing Rain Dogs (section)

==Reception==
{{Music ratings
| title = Retrospective professional ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="Ruhlmann">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/rain-dogs-mw0000192250 |title=Rain Dogs – Tom Waits |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=February 6, 2015 |last=Ruhlmann |first=William}}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]''
| rev2score = {{Rating|4|4}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://chicagosuntimes.newsbank.com/doc/news/0EB36D4B40AA1E99 |title=Alums regroup for Old Town benefit |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |date=January 19, 1987 |access-date=July 8, 2017 |last=McLeese |first=Don |url-access=subscription}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[Houston Chronicle]]''
| rev3score = {{Rating|4|4}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.chron.com/entertainment/music/article/The-best-and-not-so-best-of-Tom-Waits-1504310.php |title=The best (and not-so-best) of Tom Waits |newspaper=[[Houston Chronicle]] |date=November 19, 2006 |access-date=February 26, 2022 |last=Dansby |first=Andrew}}</ref>
| rev4 = ''[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]''
| rev4score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Tom Waits: Rain Dogs |magazine=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]] |issue=200 |date=July 2010 |last=Alexander |first=Phil |page=77}}</ref>
| rev5 = ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]''
| rev5score = 10/10<ref name="Richardson">{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/tom-waits-rain-dogs/ |title=Tom Waits: Rain Dogs |website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] |date=April 20, 2025 |access-date=April 20, 2025 |last=Richardson |first=Mark}}</ref>
| rev6 = ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
| rev6score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Tom Waits: Rain Dogs |magazine=[[Q (magazine)|Q]] |issue=73 |date=October 1992 |last=Gill |first=Andy |page=101}}</ref>
| rev7 = ''[[Rolling Stone]]''
| rev7score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name="Berger">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/tomwaits/albums/album/301318/review/5941245/rain_dogs |title=Tom Waits: Rain Dogs |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=October 17, 2002 |access-date=August 30, 2016 |last=Berger |first=Arion |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001180006/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/tomwaits/albums/album/301318/review/5941245/rain_dogs |archive-date=October 1, 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
| rev8 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev8score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Tom Waits |last1=Coleman |first1=Mark |last2=Scoppa |first2=Bud |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor1-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/854 854–855]}}</ref>
| rev9 = ''[[Select (magazine)|Select]]''
| rev9score = 5/5<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Tom Waits: Rain Dogs / Swordfishtrombones |magazine=[[Select (magazine)|Select]] |issue=32 |date=February 1993 |last=Collis |first=Andrew |page=82}}</ref>
| rev10 = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
| rev10score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=What Is He Building in There..? |magazine=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |issue=175 |date=December 2011 |last=Gill |first=Andy |pages=52–53}}</ref>
}}

Comparing the album with its predecessor ''[[Swordfishtrombones]]'', ''[[NME]]'' journalist Biba Kopf wrote that ''Rain Dogs'' saw Waits continuing "his continental drift through the crannies and corners of America's varied cultures", and concluded that "the lasting achievement of ''Rain Dogs'' is that Waits has had to sacrifice none of his poetry in pursuit of new musical languages to meet its demands."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=One from the Heart |magazine=[[NME]] |date=October 12, 1985 |last=Kopf |first=Biba |page=35}}</ref> At the end of 1985, the magazine ranked ''Rain Dogs'' (jointly with [[the Jesus and Mary Chain]]'s ''[[Psychocandy]]'') as the year's best album.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Vinyl Finals |magazine=[[NME]] |date=December 21–28, 1985 |pages=60–61}}</ref> In ''[[The Village Voice]]'', [[Robert Christgau]] gave ''Rain Dogs'' a "B+" grade and said that Waits had "worked out a unique and identifiable lounge-lizard sound that suits his status as the poet of America's non-nine-to-fivers."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv12-85.php |title=Christgau's Consumer Guide |newspaper=[[The Village Voice]] |date=December 3, 1985 |access-date=February 6, 2015 |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau}}</ref> [[Anthony DeCurtis]] penned a mixed assessment for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', finding that "''Rain Dogs'' insists on nosing its way around the barrooms and back alleys Waits has so often visited before."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/rain-dogs-255519/ |title=Rain Dogs |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=November 21, 1985 |access-date=February 6, 2015 |last=DeCurtis |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony DeCurtis}}</ref>

Retrospectively, ''Rain Dogs'' has been noted as one of the most important albums in Waits' career, continuing the new path which he forged from ''Swordfishtrombones'' onwards. In a 2002 reappraisal, ''Rolling Stone'' critic Arion Berger gave the album five out of five stars, calling it "bony and menacingly beautiful." Berger noted that "it's quirky near-pop, the all-pro instrumentation pushing Waits' not-so-melodic but surprisingly flexible vocals out front, where his own peculiar freak flag, his big heart and his romantic optimism gloriously fly."<ref name="Berger"/> [[AllMusic]] reviewer William Ruhlmann wrote that while "''Rain Dogs'' can't surprise as ''Swordfishtrombones'' had", "much of the music matches the earlier album, and there is so much of it that that is enough to qualify ''Rain Dogs'' as one of Waits' better albums."<ref name="Ruhlmann"/> ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]''{{'}}s Mark Richardson lauded it as "a romantic and carnivalesque masterpiece imbued with the [[avant-garde music|avant-garde]] sound of New York", and whose lyrics "might be the best of Waits' career."<ref name="Richardson"/>

In later assessments, ''Pitchfork'' listed ''Rain Dogs'' as 8th best album of the 1980s,<ref>{{cite web | url=http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/5882-top-100-albums-of-the-1980s/10/ | title=Top 100 Albums of the 1980s | work=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] | date=November 20, 2002 | access-date=February 6, 2015 | author=Dahlen, Chris}}</ref> and ''[[Slant Magazine]]'' listed the album at number 14 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/best-albums-of-the-1980s | title=The 100 Best Albums of the 1980s | magazine=[[Slant Magazine]] | date=March 5, 2012 | access-date=February 6, 2015}}</ref> ''Rolling Stone'' listed it as number 21 on its list of "100 Best Albums of the Eighties,"<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-albums-of-the-eighties-20110418/tom-waits-rain-dogs-20110330 | title=100 Best Albums of the Eighties | magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] | date=November 16, 1989 | access-date=February 6, 2015}}</ref> as well as listing the album at 399 and 357 in its 2012 and 2020 updates respectively of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.<ref name="500-greatest"/><ref name="Rolling Stone"/> The album was also included in the book ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Robert Dimery|author2=Michael Lydon|title=1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition|date=February 7, 2006|publisher=Universe|isbn=0-7893-1371-5}}</ref> In 2000 it was voted number 299 in [[Colin Larkin]]'s ''[[All Time Top 1000 Albums]]''.<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=[[All Time Top 1000 Albums]]|author=Colin Larkin|author-link=Colin Larkin|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=2000|edition=3rd|isbn=0-7535-0493-6|page=125}}</ref> [[Elvis Costello]] included ''Rain Dogs'' on his list of essential albums, highlighting "[[Jockey Full of Bourbon]]" and [[Time (Tom Waits song)|"Time"]].<ref>{{cite magazine| last=Costello| first=Elvis| title=Elvis Costello's 500 Must-Have Albums, from Rap to Classical| magazine=Vanity Fair| url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2000/11/elvis-costello-500-favorite-albums}}</ref>

[[Radiohead]]'s [[Thom Yorke]] recalls: <blockquote>falling asleep listening to it on my Walkman, only to wake up in the morning with it still on autorepeat in my head. Every track was a short movie set in a mysterious, circus-like down-at-heel America that I had almost no understanding of, with different characters both in the lyrics and the instruments, an entire universe revealed to me for a few minutes only to drop me at the other end of the block – no idea how I’d got there.

Every lyric was an effortless rhyme you could only dream of ever writing. Falling off the tongue so beautifully, but never giving easily, keeping half the story to itself. Waits was playing a character with a darkness and humour that felt far more genuine than anything trying to be, I dunno, ''genuine'' in 1985...

This record has never got tired for me, though I have played it over and over throughout my life, as did my kids growing up.<ref>{{cite news| last=Adams| first=Tim| title='All these bulletproof songs, one after another': remembering Tom Waits' extraordinary mid-career trilogy| work=The Guardian| url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/aug/20/tom-waits-frank-trilogy-reissues-swordfishtrombones-rain-dogs-franks-wild-years}}</ref></blockquote>