No one chews scenery like Tom Waits: Observe the musical break about a minute into Frank’s Wild Years’ “Temptation,” during which Waits moans and caterwauls over what would have been the perfect place for a tasty Marc Ribot solo. It’s ironic that such a notoriously hammy performer’s discography would be so full of collaborations like this one. Subtitled Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts, Frank’s Wild Years is the soundtrack to a musical written by Waits and Brennan and directed by Gary Sinise, in collaboration with Benoit Christie. The spontaneous feel of the album is quite distinct from Waits’ more meticulously structured work of this period, with ludic, ramshackle arrangements and a largely off-the-cuff feel. Though Waits occasionally plays it straight, as on the smoky, vaporous “Yesterday Is Here” and two versions of the lullaby-waltz “Innocent When You Dream,” most of the album proffers an exotic and otherworldy reverie, as on the Old World doo-wop of “Cold Cold Ground” and the lively “Telephone Call From Instanbul,” which sounds like it was recorded by a band of trembling, roller-skating bears. Trivia fans take note: in addition to Waits’ now-usual cast of collaborators including Marc Ribot, David Hidalgo and Larry Taylor, Frank’s Wild Years features both Guns N Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin and the Magic Band’s Jeff Moris Tepper, providing a single degree of separation between Captain Beefheart and Axl Rose.