Swordfishtrombones is an album by American singer-songwriter Tom Waits, released in September 1983. It was the first album that Waits produced himself and is marked as such by a sense of artistic freedom that would increasingly characterize his later work. Stylistically different from his previous LPs, Swordfishtrombones moves away from the piano and string orchestra arrangements of the late seventies replacing them instead with unusual instrumentation and a somewhat more abstract songwriting approach. Swordfishtrombones peaked at #164 on Billboard's Pop Albums and Billboard 200 albums chart. In 1989, Spin Magazine named Swordfishtrombones the second greatest album of all time. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.