Nick Cave thread

[I, Brian]

Well, we had something of a Nick Cave discussion going on before - I'd like to try and recap what he's been releasing more recently.

I think "Let Love In" is the last in my collection, though I know of murder ballads after. What other CD releases have their been, though? I really should get on track again with him - a master lyricist and superb expression of emotion through music.

I've only got one Nick Cave album, and that The Best of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Thats got some classic stuff on it though, Where The Wild Roses Grow is great as is The One That I've Been Waiting For. I have heard Murder Ballads too, I quite enjoyed that album, really, really downbeat.

[knivesout]

My Nick Cave collection started with Let Love In!


Murder Ballads is a must-have, even though, as I think you pointed out in the earlier discussion, its largely a more accesible version of what he was doing all along. Some of the songs are really haunting, and there's a bodycount worth of a Bruce Willis flick. The Dylan cover at the end 'Death is not the end' is really bad though, IMHO, with its campfire sing-along feel .

The Boatman Calls (I could be getting the title a bit wrong) is a very mellow and romantic album, but I tink it's pretty good. There's a lot of lyrical depth and some lovely soundscapes.

Nocturama is a real clunker. It has some of the most generic, middle-of-the-road singer-songwriter fare Cave has ever done. I just never expected he could sound mediocre but this one provesme wrong. Sure, ithas its moments, but all in all you coiuld safely avoud it.

There ya go. A little Nick Cave update.

[I, Brian]

No, I can believe the mediocrity allegation. "The Good Son" had some good tracks on it, but overall lent itself too much to sentimentalism, IMO. Think that was just before Henrys Dream (I think you'll like that, knivesout ) which preceded Let Love In.

Btw - Cormac - what's listed on the "best of" release? I'm curious.

1. Deanna

2. Red Right Hand

3. Straight to You

4. Tupelo

5. Nobody's Baby Now

6. Stranger Than Kindness

7. Into My Arms

8. (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?

9. Carny

10. Do You Love Me?

11. Mercy Seat

12. Henry Lee

13. Weeping Song

14. Ship Song

15. Where the Wild Roses Grow

16. From Her to Eternity

I'm a fairly inexperienced Nick Cave fan, and being surrounded by people who don't appreciate his rougher-than-rough-edged style it's good to know there are other fans out there. I've got my hands on 4 cds so far, the first was Nocturama, which is undoubtedly hit-and-miss but then isn't Cave usually? Some songs like 'There is a Town' and 'He Wants You' really grabbed me, though they might not be so energetically charged as much of his best stuff. I actually enjoyed the languid tone of these tracks. What I didn't like was the way they were interspersed with some really jagged heavier songs.

Murder Ballads is better, much much darker and with some absolute standout moments like Stagger Lee that make you feel like you could take out a saloon with a colt .45 (fortunately for saloons, they don't exist, at least not round these parts). Lovely Creature is another favorite of mine with its bizarre Egyptian theme and the Ballad of Millhaven (?something like that) is an absolute stonker. Even nasty stuff like O'Malley's bar is madly catchy.

No More shall we part has some good stuff, but tends to have more medicore bits than most I've heard. Even in the midst of songs he ruins really touching lyrics and melodies by following them with boring drones (the title track comes to mind)

Top of my Cave album list so far is Tender Prey, a relatively short record with some tracks on which I imagine will not be to everyone's taste, but certainly suit mine. Any album that opens with the positively apocalyptic Mercy Seat cannot go far wrong. Only a little monotonous balladry lets the record down, and even that grows on a boy like a bad habit.

But it doesn't stop there! On mp3 I've got Tupelo, which ranks up with my favorite Cave songs (I never thought I'd spend 6 minutes listening to anything to do with Elvis), the Weeping Song (first ever Cave I heard) and of course the archetypally evil Red Right Hand. Something which Cave fans might not have come across is a collaboration with Australia's fabulous violin-lead instrumentalists Dirty Three, a haunting song hidden on an X-files cd called 'Time Jesum Transeuntem et non Riverendem', which is a fabulous tune with the lyrical premise of torturing demons in a forest and extracting the titular statement from them (I'm told the latin is dubious, but the implications as I understand them are very gothic and eerie). So go fetch (It's rare, so if any fanboys want I can try to send it somehow)!

[I, Brian]

JP - see if you can track down "Your Funeral...My Trial".

Jacks Shadow
The Carny
She Fell Away
Hard on For Love
Long Time Man

...great tracks.

Others are fine.

Possibly Cave at his most murderously misogynist - and a very creative work at that.

[knivesout]

Ah, I've heard The Carny, great song. 'The carny had a horse, all skin and bone, that he named sorrow...' Will track this one down.


Incidentally, I've got a copy of Cave's novel, And the *** Saw The Angel. Rather impressive stuff, very in keeping with his musical persona as well. Here's a review: http://www.themodernword.com/reviews/cave_angel.html

[I, Brian]

I actually did have the book at some point, but for some reason I never read it. Cave is a great lyricist so I should expect his book makes for some interesting reading.

It's great revisiting the Carny again "No one saw the carny go, no one saw the carny go..."

Ever seen "Wings of Desire" by Wim Wenders? Somehow it's got Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds making an appearance in that, singing The Carny live. Also stars Peter Falk (Columbo), and for the most part, the dialogue is in German.

[knivesout]

Oh, yes, I saw that movie ages before I'd heard of Nick Cave, actually, City of Angels was a remake of it, but with a romantic overlay that the original happily does not posess.

For a long time I used to wonder who that madcap singer in the movie was. One day, I saw a video of Loverman...and there you go!

[I, Brian]

Lol! Some of us bohemian heretics simply watched that film for Cave!

[I, Brian]

Really getting into Tender PRey more than I did before. It's not so melodic and tuneful as some of his other works, but Cave really shows the strength of his lyrics on this one.

"a voice full of innuendo, syphilis, and greed"
"who's that dancing on the courthouse roof/stamping and a tramping with a cloven hoof"

Good stuff.

[knivesout]

Well, it looks as if his new double album, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus , should be worth a listen. Here's a review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/revie...305820,00.html

[I, Brian]

Sounds interesting - but ompletely surprising that Blixa's not there. He's been like Cave's right arm.

Wonder if the album is split into side 1: what the fans expect, side 2: what Cave wants to do.

Either way, I think I'll lok to buy this next one.

[knivesout]

Well the review does say that the two discs present differing musical moods. Although as a fan, all I really expect of Nick Cave is genius.


The Guardian reviewer remarks on Bargeld's departure actually, speculating that this may have shocked Cave into giving the Bad Seeds a more prominent role than in the rather limp Nocturama.