[Vic]

Tonight I did a search and was totally shocked not finding any threads about Nick Cave

.

Come on guys, I am sure there must be a lot of you who love one of the best musicians of the last 20 years (and one of the few whose lyrics are worth reading).

I think three of the last four albums are absolutely sublime: "The boatman's call", "No more shall we part" and the double "Abbattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus"; forgetting the strange incident that is "Nocturama".

What do you think of his earlier stuff, which are your favourites?
Fire ahead

 

[chadbang]

Search MY threads (no, don't bother) and you'll hearing me touting "The Boatman's Call" as one of the best-sounding albums of all time. My audio test choice. Not to mention I think it's brilliant, beautiful and moving.

A real masterpiece - for adults who can appreciate it. After three years of listening to it, I've never tired of it. And that says alot.

 

[Masonjar]

I would say my favorites are THE GOOD SON and HENRY'S DREAM. I might have more to do with being tied to some great times in my life, but those are just two of the best get drunk on whiskey, smoke cigarettes and sing along albums ever. I've never really heard anything *bad* from Nick Cave, but those two are my favorites. Nothing I've heard from Nick Cave in the past 10 years, save for a few songs here and there, has blown me away quite like HENRY'S DREAM did.
Every track on that album is classic.

-jar

 

[redrich2000]

come sail your ships around me...

 

[jonnyhambone]

yep, 'Abbatoir Blues/ Lyre of Orpheus' is a beautious double album.
One of the best I've ever heard, along with Husker Du 'Zen Arcade', George Harrison 'All Things Must Pass', Butthole Surfer's 'Double Live', Led Zeppelin 'Physical Graffiti', Genesis 'Lamb Lies Down...', and Kate Bush 'Aerial'. Not all double albums need to be so but these all needed a double album treatment and thrive with the format...

 

[Vic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonnyhambone yep, 'Abbatoir Blues/ Lyre of Orpheus' is a beautious double album. One of the best I've ever heard, along with Husker Du 'Zen Arcade', George Harrison 'All Things Must Pass', Butthole Surfer's 'Double Live', Led Zeppelin 'Physical Graffiti', Genesis 'Lamb Lies Down...', and Kate Bush 'Aerial'. Not all double albums need to be so but these all needed a double album treatment and thrive with the format...

Agree, great album and quite unusual in the way that it is more like two different albums sold together rather than a double CD.
"Abbattoir Blues" is more of a rock album, "The lyre" a bit more relaxed and definetely the one I like the most.

I saw Nick live at the Brixton Academy a couple of months after the release of this double. Very nice

 

[Oliver :)]

Appreciation

I was recently given "B-Sides And Rarities" for my birthday as an addition to my collection, and it is very much recommended. There are phases when I will listen to Nich & the Bad Seeds for days on end.

 

[VicAjax]

i've been listening to Nick Cave since a friend of mine introduced me to The Birthday Party - Prayers on Fire when i was in 10th grade.

i'm more familiar with his early albums than his material after Let Love In (a great album if you don't have it)... although i do have the listenable Murder Ballads. i've even read Cave's novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, which is like Faulkner if he simultaneously took acid and opium.

so having laid out my credentials, here are my recommendations, and the order in which i think you should purchase them:

1) Tender Prey
this is possibly my all-time favorite Nick Cave album. he still has the post-punk edge of The Birthday Party, but it's balanced with melody and songcraft without getting too schmaltzy. "The Mercy Seat" is one of the all time best songs ever written about Death Row (i'd put it up there with some country legends). "Deanna" is a brilliant rave-up that gets me every time. really, this whole album is fantastic... the pinnacle of his early post-Birthday Party career.

2) Kicking Against the Pricks
the name is taken from a bible verse (go figure). this is an album entirely of covers. it's a great, eclectic collection of songs that really shows what Cave's musical influences are. from country and blues classics like "Long Black Veil" and "Black Betty" to Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties" and a really twisted version of "Hey Joe." it also happens to be a great primer of musical Americana.

3) From Her to Eternity
this was his first solo/Bad Seeds album, and since it came right after Birthday Party, it's probably the most dissonant. it's a great album, and the title track (also featured in my all time favorite movie, Wings of Desire directed by Wim Wenders) is a Cave classic. this album might be a little cacophonous for you, if you're mostly used to his later material. but it's worth owning if for nothing more than the title track and the fantastic cover of Mac Davis' "In the Ghetto."

4) The Good Son
this is the first album where Cave really gets in touch with his softer side. it's a generally mellow, melodious album, so depending on which direction of his oeuvre one is coming from, it's either immediately appealing or takes a few listens to get used to. again, since you're used to his newer stuff, this album might not come as much of a shock. it's an excellent album, but overall i prefer the three above. the standout tracks for me are "The Ship Song," Cave's interpretation of a classic soul ballad, and "The Witness Song;" a dark, gothic take on american gospel.

 

[Wmcmanus]

I've recently ordered "No More Shall We Part" based on recommendations in another Head-Fi thread. I had never heard Nick Cave and didn't know what to expect at all. Perhaps it was a little too late at night because I remember feeling tired and sort of "suffering" through it on the first spin.

I'll have to give it another chance before shelving it. Literally, I take the "shelving it" thing seriously because once is hits the shelves, there will have to be something special about it to make me want to give it another listen. It seems like I've got an endless stream of new music to listen to and at a certain point, a lot of the "so so" stuff (for my tastes) simply gets archived until I have a chance to sift through it all again.

 

[VicAjax]

Wmcmanus... what are your general music tastes? Nick Cave is definitely not for everyone, even his newer stuff.

 

[Wmcmanus]

I don't really have any limits or boundaries, but what I tend to listen to most would would be jazz, blues, classic rock, old school reggae, female vocals and in general, pre 1990 types of stuff (just because that's what I grew up with).

I listen to some classical, but no country (other than Johnny Cash and a few others) no rap to speak of, not a whole lot of electronica or new age. But the thing is, these are just my listening "tendencies" as opposed to what I might "like" if I try it, and I find myself liking a LOT of music that I've tried during the past couple of years based on Head-Fi recommendations (Tom Waits, Jeff Buckley, Wilco, Liquid Tension Experiment, Tony Furtado, Sufjan Stevens, John Legend, Switchfoot, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Keith Jarrett, these are just a couple that come to mind but the list is endless and unordered by genre). So I'll give Nick Cave another try.

 

[Davey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus I've recently ordered "No More Shall We Part" based on recommendations in another Head-Fi thread. I had never heard Nick Cave and didn't know what to expect at all. Perhaps it was a little too late at night because I remember feeling tired and sort of "suffering" through it on the first spin.

The tears are welling in my eyes again
Hallelujah
I need twenty big buckets to catch them in
Hallelujah
And twenty pretty girls to carry them down
Hallelujah
And twenty deep holes to bury them in

That's one of my Nick Cave favorites from that album, especially when the McGarrigles take over at the end, after the mournful violin of the Dirty Three's Warren Ellis fades away. Beautiful stuff.

Yeah, I'm a huge Nick Cave fan, but that album never fully connected with me. Maybe just too somber. Has all the right ingredients, and I love parts of it, but overall leaves me a bit dissatisfied. The last one is one of the finest albums of the new millenium. Maybe even the finest. Even as ambitious as it is, still hard to fault. Well, except it is a crappy recording and/or mastering. Severely compressed. But I say that about almost all modern stuff. Disappointing from someone who has had a few very nice sounding CDs in the past so I think he must know what good sound is. Or at least has worked with those who do?

 

[Wmcmanus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davey The tears are welling in my eyes again Hallelujah I need twenty big buckets to catch them in Hallelujah And twenty pretty girls to carry them down Hallelujah And twenty deep holes to bury them in

Oh ya, I did like that one.

 

[Vic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wmcmanus So I'll give Nick Cave another try.

Please give it a good try. Nick Cave is not easy to get into, but once you get use to it he is one of the few really moving artists around (together with Tom Waits). Also the lyrics are really great.
NSWP is at the moment one of my favorite, although may be not one of the most accessible as an introduction. For me the best song is probably "God is in the house", but there are really a lot of pearls in this CD if you listen carefully.

A bit out of topic. Has anybody seen the movie written by Nick: "The proposition"?

 

[Masonjar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vic Please give it a good try. Nick Cave is not easy to get into, but once you get use to it he is one of the few really moving artists around (together with Tom Waits). Also the lyrics are really great. NSWP is at the moment one of my favorite, although may be not one of the most accessible as an introduction. For me the best song is probably "God is in the house", but there are really a lot of pearls in this CD if you listen carefully. A bit out of topic. Has anybody seen the movie written by Nick: "The proposition"?

It's really weird for me to hear Nick Cave singing about God. I guess I'm used to him singing about the devil ("Up Jumped the Devil and he staked his claim on me").

As for that album, "Love Letter" is one of my absolute favorite Nick Cave songs. Right up there with "The Ship Song" and "Straight to You," his other great ballads.

-jar