Tom Waits' inimitable voice is as well-travelled as his career. Starting out on Asylum as a jazz-tinged bar singer with a penchant for storytelling, Waits came into his own in the '80s Island era, toying with instrumentation to create his own sound. He was influential then, but became more so when he altered his voice after signing with Anti in the late '90s, twisting it into a percussive instrument on albums like 2004's piano-free Real Gone. Waits' ability to switch from nostalgic ballad to baroque pop on a dime makes him uncategorizable after four decades—but also endlessly compelling.