Mule Variations is the thirteenth studio album by American musician Tom Waits, released on April 16, 1999, on the ANTI- label.

Mule Variations won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and was nominated for Best Male Rock Performance for the track "Hold On".

AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine stated that "the album uses the ragged cacophony of Bone Machine as a starting point, and proceeds to bring in the songwriterly aspects of Rain Dogs, along with its affection for backstreet and backwoods blues, plus a hint of the beatnik qualities of Swordfish.

[2] Former Village Voice editor Robert Christgau gave the album an A− rating and praised the songwriting of Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan, saying "together they humanize the percussion-battered Bone Machine sound, reconstituting his '80s alienation effects into a Delta harshness with more give to it.

[18] In 2010, Mule Variations was awarded a platinum certification from the Independent Music Companies Association,[19] which indicated sales of at least 500,000 copies throughout Europe.