Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs stands as Tom Waits' most vividly noir album, a collection of cinematic vignettes pulled straight from the pages of hardboiled detective fiction and the underbelly of urban America. Each track paints a portrait of forgotten characters inhabiting the same shadowy corner of skid row—whether Los Angeles or New York's Potter's Field. The album's centerpiece is Waits' unforgettable duet with Bette Midler on "I Never Talk to Strangers," a singles-bar dialogue that crackles with tension and chemistry.