The 4xM Schmoetastic Über-Cool Everybody-Goes-CooCoo Fab MASS MUSIC PROJECT Part I

[Ren Hoek]

Greetings, schmonzies and schmonzettes!


Thanks to Miss Cover Version and her brilliant (or shoud I say daredevil) plan to organise a huge schmoe come-together to collectively listen to and discuss an album, I feel honoured to present the first round of the MMMM Schmoetastic MM Project. (Uh boy, that was a looong sentence! ;) ) It's...



NICK CAVE and THE BAD SEEDS: "NO MORE SHALL WE PART"

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005AMDP.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


~ As I Sat Sadly By Her Side
~ And No More Shall We Part
~ Hallelujah
~ Love Letter
~ Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow
~ God Is In The House
~ Oh My Lord
~ Sweetheart Come
~ The Sorrowful Wife
~ We Came Along this Road
~ Gates To The Garden
~ Darker With The Day




The mega-event will take place in this very thread on Sunday, July 27 at 7pm EST, or 4pm PST North American time. That's midnight (12am GMT) in the night from Sunday to Monday (7/28) for all UK schmoes. Wind up yer watches because we all have have to push the PLAY button on our stereos at the same time to make the whole affair work.


Every little bit of help is appreciated. So if there are any other Nick Cave fans around here, feel free to post your thoughts, questions, musings, whatever HERE! I'll update this thread with some more infos (reviews, photos, interviews) in the course of this week.


So try to get your hands on this fab album ASAP, download it from Kazaa, visit your local record store, or borrow it from your friends (and never give it back!). EVERYONE can participate! :)


Stay tuned!

[BadCoverVersion]

Fabulous kick-off to "The Project" Ren...:)

I'm truly looking forward to this, it'll be bags 'o' fun hopefully, and I'm extremely keen to hear this particular Nick Cave album!

I shall be downloading the tracks I expect, unless I can pick up a cheapo copy at the local vinyl exchange (I'm a bit strapped for cash at the moment)...

Anyway, GREAT little start there Ren...By ECK...I'm eagerly anticipating Sunday night!

:)

[bob]

This is, honestly, a fantastic idea, but until my savings total more than 45 cents, I'm afraid I won't be able to participate. Hope you guys have fun though.

[bowieee]

I'll be joining this about halfway through the adventure but after I speed home from work I'll set my cd to whatever track you guys are on at that time......


Fun times ahead.

[bedhead_dl]

Wow, nice album to start off with.

One of those "always wanted to, never have" kind of artists to me. Now I need to!

Hmmmm...who will have this CD I wonder...hmmm

[areyoubeingserved]

This is a fairly interesting review, from the ever reliable but often over precocious people at www.pitchforkmedia.com....

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
No More Shall We Part
[Reprise; 2001]
Rating: 7.0
There's a great line in Chinatown when John Huston tells Jack Nicholson, "Of course they respect me; I'm old. Whores, politicians, and ugly buildings all get respectable if they last long enough." I think someone should add punk icons to that list. No one seems to mind that Lou Reed has been riding his reputation for years, turning out adequate, but ultimately bland concept albums. Iggy Pop is always a welcome, if none-too-surprising weekly feature on Behind the Music. And hell, seeing Johnny Rotten weep was one of the high points of the Sex Pistols documentary, The Filth and the Fury. All of which makes one think that someday, maybe Henry Rollins will produce an album of acoustic love ballads/gospel music that older rock critics will deem "hauntingly personal."

None of this bodes very well for Nick Cave's latest, No More Shall We Part. It naturally features all the brooding, broken hearts, hideous death stories, and forced pentameters as you'd expect from The Great Coiffure, and it's nice to report that Cave's lyrics are still as earnest, and unsparing as any high school poetry we've ever read. But goddamn if he doesn't sing like a cranky Neil Diamond here.

Until now, playing "name that influence" has always been part of the fun with Cave. I've heard Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen in his music before, but this Neil shit is seriously freaking my ass out. And musically, aside from the addition of The Dirty Three's Warren Ellis as his newest Bad Seed, there's nothing here we didn't encounter on Cave's last album.

Oh yeah, and Nick still likes God. He also wants to stress that he's still saved, though, oddly enough, he seems about as unhappy about it as his fans do. I suppose it was too much to hope for a Cave-Satan reunion. Like all of Cave's religious material, it sometimes-- in far more moderation than he offers here-- sounds like the music you'd find playing in one of those run-down Southern chapels you might stumble across in your adolescent beatnik road-trip fantasies.

No More Shall We Part isn't without its high points, though, and these are on par with everything you've liked about late-90s Cave. Unfortunately, it also carries a similar curse: A song can begin exceptionally well, only to draw itself out into eternity. The shorter, more romantic material works much better, even if "The Sorrowful Wife" and "Love Letter" proudly flaunt their Neil streak. The gorgeous "Darker with the Day", however, closes the record at a peak, hinting at the glory that still lies buried beneath all this fucking redemption.

It's not as if Cave has stumbled down the dark and evil path carved by so many non-punk icons (i.e., the album was not produced by Babyface). In fact, No More Shall We Part is as wonderfully, consciously unmarketable as anything Cave has ever done. Whatever you want to think about Nick, you can never say it's ever been "about the money, man." And that's extraordinarily refreshing in a world ruled by Jive Records.

-Brad Pritchett, April, 2001

[ofmknockoff]

I'll be at camp but I hope it works out for everyone.

Good luck getting it organized.

[Ren Hoek]

BCV, Bowieee, areyoubeingobeserved (get a shorter screen name, matey! ;)) and everyone else, thanks for your kind words. This project is going to be HUGE! :)


And if you you are are not that familiar with Nick Cave, The Bad Seeds, and their oeuvre and have some of time on your hands, check out this very cool and quite extensive article. (courtesey of the friendly folks at www.nick-cave.net)
http://www.nick-cave.net/board/album_pic.php?pic_id=90


Let there be light - March 2001

by Jessamy Calkin


WARRACKNABEAL is a small town 180 miles north-west of Melbourne. It would probably be overlooked in the great scheme of things, apart from one significant fact: it is the birthplace of Nick Cave, singer, songwriter, author, who with his band, the Bad Seeds, has achieved enormous acclaim in the UK and heroic status in Australia. In fact, in a recent issue of the magazine Australian Style, he was awarded - along with (even more implausibly) Kylie Minogue - the title 'Australian of the Century'.


In his own world: it can sometimes take hours for him to reconnect with people after working

Cave has plans for Warracknabeal. He has commissioned a statue of himself atop a rearing horse, and hopes to erect it in the town square. And not just any old statue; this will be a life-size bronze made by sculptor Corrin Johnson, the man responsible for two Christian martyrs above the main entrance to Westminster Abbey, and the man who constructed the Princess Diana Memorial.

The statue will be cast in Britain, shipped to Australia and then driven across country to Warracknabeal. The Australian director John Hillcoat is making a documentary about it: the statue's trip in a U-Haul, the attempt to get the mayor to agree to it, the unveiling, the flock of limos and the velvet suits, the disgruntled locals.There will be a plaque, of course, which will read, 'Birthplace of Nick Cave'.

Is he serious? Well, that is the question. Nick Cave likes to ride a very fine line with his humour, which is dark and convoluted and heavy with irony. He likes to provoke and to subvert the obvious. It is a principle which can be equally applied to his new look. He describes it as New Labour: a cross between Tony Blair and Tony Montana (Scarface is one of Cave's favourite films). Today he is wearing - and let's not underestimate this - a toffee-coloured cashmere checked jacket; a brown woollen tie purchased at Selfridges; an almost imperceptibly striped white cotton shirt, a pair of dingo-coloured soft suede loafers. He is also wearing a pair of jeans, and they are from Gap.

Which is ironic, considering that a few years ago Gap asked Cave to appear in one of its advertising campaigns, and he replied with a letter: 'Dear Gap. I might put on a pair of your jeans if you were to pay me a L1 billion, but even then I would have serious reservations. Signed Nick Cave.' And now he has to buy his own.

In the beginning, in Cave's wardrobe, there was a pair of leather trousers and a T-shirt saying 'Jesus'; there was a carrier bag full of flowery see-through shirts more often than not made out of his girlfriends' dresses; there was a green suit with trousers so tight that when he was strip-searched at an airport once he couldn't get them off; there were cowboy boots so pointed that the toes curled up completely, like elves' shoes.

In the late Eighties there were cardigans, white patent-leather loafers and loud checks; a few years later there was a baby-pink Take That T-shirt for the video of Stagger Lee. And running through this collection was an endless array of elegant suits and implausible ties. Cave has been described as 'the tapeworm that ate Elvis'. Gap just didn't fit into this sartorial equation.

But the main reason for this spurning of Gap is that Cave doesn't do advertisements, or allow his music to be used for them. He was not tempted by the sanitary towel manufacturer that wanted to use his song Red Right Hand for its television advertisements. If he were to lease his music out for commercial gain, he says, his muse would desert him.

'I get letters from people telling me they got married to The Ship Song,' he says, 'or that they buried their best friend to Into My Arms, and I don't want them to look at the TV and see that they buried their friend to a Cornetto ad or something. I feel some sense of responsibility about that, even though they wave enormous sums of money at you. That's where my muse puts her foot down.'

We are sitting in Cave's office in Chelsea and his muse is all around. His muse, the creative impulse, whatever you like to call it, is what separates him from his contemporaries, what elevates him to the heights of the truly great songwriters, what keeps him sane - though in the past it has nearly driven him insane - and what has probably saved his life. It sustained him through days of starving and freezing in London squats in the early Eighties with his first band, the Birthday Party, through endless touring with the Bad Seeds, through hangovers and overdoses, through addictions and clinics, through rootless years in Sao Paolo and Berlin. It was a lifestyle that could have claimed much lesser constitutions and warped much lesser spirits than Cave's.

'I think I have always had a pretty strong creative impulse,' he says carefully. 'And that has probably saved me from abandoning myself completely. I just don't think I would have allowed it.' But it is a dark gift of the gods and Cave is a driven man. In the old days he would write all the time, anywhere - lyrics on scraps of paper, in countless notebooks. He would even cart around carrier bags of books and papers covered in his spidery writing. For three years in Berlin he laboured over his novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, tapping away on a manual typewriter in a cubbyhole in someone's flat. Sometimes he would wake up the next day with letters imprinted on his face from where he had slumped, asleep, on to the keys.

But now Cave has tamed his creative impulse; he has disciplined it for many reasons. When he starts writing, he says, it's almost as if a physical change comes over him; he feels very disconnected from everything, lost in his own world, and it can sometimes take hours for him to reconnect. 'It's almost like a chemical reaction. I feel different in my body - something changes, and I feel very isolated and estranged from things.' So these days he is very organised; he has become nine-to-five man.

It was here, in his office, from nine to five, that he wrote his new album, No More Shall We Part. 'I'd gone through a bit of a slump after The Boatman's Call [his last album]. I wasn't blocked but I felt a bit disgusted with the whole thing and I didn't really feel like writing. A couple of years later, I wanted to write again and I needed a place to concentrate in, so I got an office. And it has just grown into a place of retreat. It's a very protected environment, completely about my work, and I really like it here.' It is part of a large industrial building in Chelsea, divided into units, and there is a photographer working beneath him who frequently complains that the plaster is raining down on him from the ceiling. It is just Cave's fierce foot-tapping while he plays the piano.

The office is a large, cold room, dominated by a Napoleonic camp-bed thoughtfully placed there by his wife, Susie, and a 100-year-old Steinway piano which was a wedding present from her parents. There is an antique desk covered in bottles of Evian, ashtrays, piles of books (Pascale's Pensées, a poetry anthology) and an iMac, at which Cave is peering, keen to get back to the task in hand, which is writing a film script for his friend, John Hillcoat. It is set in the outback.

The name 'Samuel Stoat' is visible on the screen. 'Stoat: Flies? Don't worry about flies. You kill one, Charlie, and a dozen more turn up for the funeral.' Samuel Stoat is one of the film's main characters: a filthy, big-nosed, long-haired, bad-complexioned man with a beautiful voice - based, so Cave tells me, on Tony Cohen, the Bad Seeds' wild and wildly talented engineer.

Cave eyes the tape-recorder quizzically; he has always hated interviews, although recently he has become much more adept at them. 'In fact, I only talk in quotation marks now. It's the other sort of talking I can't do.'

The trouble is, he says, that journalists seem to think they have to ask him certain questions - you know the kind of stuff. Drugs. Murder. God. 'People think I'm a miserable sod but it's only because I get asked such bloody miserable questions.'

Whereas he'd much rather talk about, well, lighter things. Like fashion. So how do you like women to dress?

'Miserably,' he yawns. 'No, I have a thing about knees actually. I do like the hem of the dress to. . . glance upon the knee.'

Smart?

'Yes, smart. I like a dress that's tight in the body. . . and shoes that are not too high - but I like a heel that flexes the calf muscle.'

Hats?

'I'm not big on hats. Although Susie did have some kind of hat on when I first met her - a Philip Treacy creation - which I thought was kind of fantastic. . . with a tiny veil and little black feathers.'

In the summer of 1999, on the day of the eclipse, Nick Cave married the English beauty Susie Bick. Susie, 34, is epically sweet and endlessly feminine. She is the kind of girl who always serves tea in china teacups with roses on and lights scented candles everywhere; her curtains are made of velvet; the furniture is covered in ribbons and lace; she wears pale-pink cashmere and summer frocks; and she is all green eyes and black, black hair with skin like cold white marble.

They met, says Cave, at the Natural History Museum, under the tail of the brachiosaurus. At a fashion show, then?

'Er, yes.'

And did you fall in love with her straight away?

'I did, yes. I thought that she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. And continues to be. Even elbow-deep in baby shit she looks pretty good to me.'

Did you feel a sense of destiny that you haven't felt before?

He grunts a little, looking pained. 'Something very different has happened with Susie. It's the realisation at 43 years of age that a relationship isn't something that just sort of blazes with fire for two months and then hits the decline and carries on downhill until the whole thing lies exhausted in the gutter. I've discovered that things go up and down and you can actually work through things and love the person more, stuff like that - it's quite extraordinary.'

Do you think it's because you've got older? Or you've met the right person?

'It's because it's the right person. I've found someone who really likes being with me. She thinks I'm really great. And just likes me the way I am. . . I think.'

They now have twin boys, Earl and Arthur. Although they own a houseboat in Chelsea, for the moment they live in an ordinary terrace house in an ordinary street in south-west London. In the sitting-room a fire burns; there are pictures by Cave's favourite artist, Louis Wain (the mad-cat painter) and a piano with its middle keys worn away.

Sometimes when Cave comes home he feels a bit disorientated because Susie tends to move the furniture around a lot; it's one of her eccentricities and her husband speaks fondly of it, sings fondly of it, in fact, in a song called The Sorrowful Wife. But today he is sitting securely on a bottle-green damask sofa reading a newspaper, an item which he never used to even glance at, but which now, he admits slightly sheepishly, gets delivered daily. 'Tell me,' he arches an eyebrow. 'Do people read the whole thing?'

He has enjoyed the newspaper experience, he says, seeing where everything fits in the world, piecing together its politics. 'I think people just assume I'm a kind of cretin about things like that. Or that I have no interest, that I'm just locked away in my little world, tapping away at the typewriter.'

And to a certain extent they would be right. It has very much been his own world. In the early days, Cave's lyrics revolved entirely around a world he had created, a world full of retribution and desire and violent, vengeful gods; obsessive, poetic tales of love destroyed and innocents smote down. They were epic, literate stories coiled within a song.

It was the Old Testament Nick. Now Penguin is publishing his collected lyrics, more than 20 years of work, and Cave recently had to proofread them. It was the first time he'd seen them like that, all together on paper, clinically divorced from the music, and though he was in many ways impressed, he was also shocked by how fixated he'd been on a particular theme in song after song.

By Let Love In, released in 1994, it had all become a bit more personal, and by the time of The Boatman's Call, three years later, the lyrics were agonisingly intense, so, eviscerating in painful detail his break-up with his Brazilian girlfriend, Viviane Carneiro, and his short-lived, emotive affair with Polly Harvey.

'My lyric writing reached some sort of hysterical crescendo about the time of The Boatman's Call, reporting what was going on in my life in the most melodramatic way; ordinary stuff magnified to heroic proportions. And I find it very difficult to listen to that record now because of that.' He thinks that, in many ways, it is quite a beautiful record and that he'd probably like it if he hadn't made it himself 'but. . . ' he screws up his face, 'sometimes it sounds like the moaning of a dying insect.'

No More Shall We Part is, lyrically speaking, more open to the world. Cave's songs seem to have a higher intelligence about his life. The album has its surreal touches - Cave must be one of the few people who can get away with beginning a verse, 'I'd given my nurse the weekend off. . . ' - but it is a beautiful record, full of sad melodies. It is in many ways a love letter to his wife; she certainly fares better in it than his previous girlfriends have in past records. And the one constant through all of Cave's albums is his love songs.

He has even lectured on the subject. 'The Secret Life of the Love Song' originated at the invitation of the Poetry Academy in Vienna in 1999. 'The peculiar magic of the love song,' he wrote, 'if it has the heart to do it, is that it endures where the object of the song does not. It attaches itself to you and together you move through time. . . ' He delivered the lecture and then went on to teach 15 carefully selected aspiring writers for a week-long workshop on the love song.

'I have very clear memories of being about 12 years old,' he said in his lecture, 'and sitting, as you are now, in a classroom or hall, watching my father who would be standing up here, where I am standing, and thinking to myself, "It doesn't really matter what I do with my life as long as I don't end up like my father." Now at 43 years old, it would appear that there is virtually no action I can take that doesn't make me more like him. At 43 years of age I have become my father, and here I am, ladies and gentlemen, teaching.'

[tbc]

[Ren Hoek]

Nick Cave grew up in Wangaratta, a large country town in Victoria. His father was a teacher of English literature who went on to become director of adult education in Victoria; his mother was a school librarian. Cave spent most of his time outdoors, hanging out by the river, jumping over train tracks, tying up his younger sister, that sort of thing. He and his friend Eddie Baumgarten would be driven into the bush by Eddie's father, issued with a six-pack of beer and a shotgun and told to shoot anything that moved.

'We shot rabbits,' says Cave wistfully. 'Rabbits with myxomatosis that couldn't see us coming so we would walk up and shoot them, executioner style. Poor bunnies.' When they were 12, Nick and Eddie started the triple A club (Anti Alcoholics Anonymous); they would get local taxi drivers to buy them drinks then hole up in a garage somewhere, get drunk and throw up. It was Eddie's sister, Anne, who introduced Cave to Leonard Cohen, and they would sit in the dark, listening to Songs of Love and Hate.

Constantly in trouble at school, Cave was sent to boarding school in Melbourne; later his parents moved there and he became 'a day scab'. At school he met Mick Harvey, his long-term collaborator, and they started a band. Cave's father - who had planted the creative seed in his wayward son by introducing him to good literature - was beginning to wonder what on earth he'd created and, as Cave grew older, he found himself competing with his father in a way that wasn't entirely healthy. 'I would look for things he didn't know about, holes in his knowledge. I would read up on lots of obscure French literature and take it to him and say, "Have you read this?" But he was pretty clever, my father, and he would always win and I would walk away with my tail between my legs.'

When Cave was 19 his father was killed in a car crash, a tragedy which he learned about at the police station where he was being hauled over for some minor misdemeanour. After his father's death, says Cave, he just took off and didn't stop or look back for 20 years.

What do you mean, took off?

'Left. Just sort of blasted forth, out of Australia. I didn't really feel anything for a long time, I just took off. It was as if I couldn't stay still. It was the suddenness of it, and the fact that things were really incomplete and very confused for me at that time.' People who have an absent or dead father often have remarkable motivation, an insatiable drive. 'I'm sure that's true of me. It was as if I could never do enough.' It's only now, with children of his own, that he feels better able to understand his father.

In London, Cave's band, the Birthday Party - who were wild and poetic and apocalyptic and mad - was signed by the revered Daniel Miller to his newly formed label, Mute Records, in 1983. Six weeks later, they split up and Cave and Mick Harvey created the Bad Seeds. 'At the first Bad Seeds gig ever, nearly 20 years ago,' says Miller, 'I remember having my breath taken away. Both bands were like gangs in a way, but the Bad Seeds seemed like a gang with a massive purpose.' Warren Ellis, who now plays violin with the Bad Seeds, also remembers meeting Cave around this time. 'I first met Nick in a Melbourne house I used to frequent. One of the women living in the house wouldn't allow anyone else to sit in the chair he had sat in - I was very impressed by that.'

Eleven albums later, credit must go to Harvey for keeping the Bad Seeds together all these years, both musically and practically. An arranger and very talented musician, in the old days Harvey would play virtually everything in the studio (and indeed on-stage, at one time or another): drums, keyboards, guitar, bass. He attributes the longevity of the Bad Seeds to the fact that the band don't see much of each other because they all live in different countries and that almost all of them have their own separate projects, musically. 'And,' says Harvey laconically, 'we don't have that problem of democracy that other groups have. We're all perfectly entitled to our opinions, but if Nick really wants to do something, he'll do it.'

Having known Cave since their schooldays, Harvey says that although their relationship has changed over the years, Cave hasn't: 'He's always been an egotist, he's always craved attention - and he's still like that. He's always been very creatively driven, with quite high ideas about what he could be, he's always had this wild streak, and he's always been very generous and lovable.'

But outwardly, things have altered. The crazy, drug-fuelled days are over and have been, for some years. Cave is calmer, more open. 'I'm doing pretty much what I want to do, and there isn't that horrible sense of panic that I used to have about everything. I used to feel that I was just clinging on to something, which was primarily about my work, but also about the relationships I was in. I felt that I was hanging on by my fingernails to everything, and that it was all just slipping away.'

The high esteem in which Cave is held culturally has enabled him to broaden his interests. In the summer of 1999 he directed the Meltdown Festival at the South Bank Centre, putting together 10 days of music and performances from his favourite artists, from Lee Hazelwood to Les Patterson.

In 2003 he will be musical director of an extravaganza to be put on by the Sydney Dance Company. Musically, Cave is neither mainstream nor superstar (the Bad Seeds have never done particularly well in America) but in the particular niche that he occupies, he is very significant indeed. His concerts always sell out and his albums continue to sell substantially, long after their release. Despite an acrimonious relationship with the press in the past, acclaim for Cave's albums has grown stronger and stronger, with some critics rating him alongside Dylan, Van Morrison and Leonard Cohen as a songwriter. Among his contemporaries he is unusual in that, from a very promising start, his work has just got better and better with age.

Bob Dylan sought him out at Glastonbury in 1998 and wandered over to tell him he liked what he did ('It was as if God came out of heaven,' Cave said later); earlier, Dylan had even allowed Cave to add to the lyrics of his song, Wanted Man. On his last album, Johnny Cash paid him the compliment of covering Cave's song, The Mercy Seat, and Leonard Cohen said of Cave's version of Avalanche, 'I really like it. He really goes out with it, makes the song alive. Not that I've ever abandoned it. I've always felt good about that song. Or bad. Whatever the feeling is.'

The Bad Seeds' bestselling album was Murder Ballads (1996). It sold a million worldwide, partly because of the single Where The Wild Roses Grow, a duet with Kylie Minogue which reached the top 20 in Britain. 'It started as a joke,' says Cave. 'It wasn't supposed to be an important record, and it sold way more than anything we've ever done. It was almost a hit,' he adds worriedly. It is a dark collection of droll little songs, like O'Malleys Bar, in which a psycho wanders into a bar and shoots everybody. ('Well, you know those fish with the swollen lips/ That clean the ocean floor/ When I looked at poor O'Malley's wife/ That is exactly what I saw/ I jammed the barrel under her chin/ And her face looked raw and vicious/ Her head it landed in the sink/ With all the dirty dishes. . . ') Murder Ballads was a comic opera of a record, and mostly it was taken in the right spirit, except, predictably, in America, where one journalist asked Cave, 'What are you going to do next, an album of rape ballads?'

A few days later, in a studio in Battersea, south-west London, a video shoot is being set up. As I Sat Sadly By Her Side is the first single from the new album. John Hillcoat, who has directed many of Cave's videos, is in charge. It is a song about seeing the world in two different ways. A row of mirrors has been set up to reflect the projected footage: multiplied images of planets exploding, roses blooming, kittens fighting and a carousel out of control, creating a kaleidoscopic effect. The strains of the song and its plaintive vocals are all around, along with a regiment of technicians, assistants, cameramen and hair and make-up people.

In the middle of all this stands Nick Cave. It is cold and he is wearing a rather incongruous item, a sort of blue-and-white padded jacket like you might find at a yacht club.

'It's very you,' says one of the technicians.

'Isn't it,' says Cave in a deadpan and slightly camp way. 'I'm a chameleon. Like David Bowie.' He takes the jacket off to reveal a black suit and stands there, only slightly self-conscious, with his awkward gait and big hands, overblown gestures, furrowed brow and his funny little tapping dance.

Later, his nine-year-old son, Luke, comes to visit the set and stands watching in his school blazer, swaying slightly to the music. He looks very much like Cave, although his colouring is that of his mother, Viviane Carneiro, who split up with Cave several years ago but still lives in London with Luke.

Having children, says Cave - who is a very hands-on father - makes you feel connected to the world. To Luke, having a famous father means that his dad is invited to his school in west London to take part in the Week of the Voice. The idea was that he should educate the children about rock'n'roll - along with Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, whose son is in the same class. Dickinson, it has to be said, holds slightly more sway, having been on Top of the Pops, 'while I'm just some gloomy old git who sits at the piano moaning on about this and that. . . '

Luke, says Cave, has never really known his father do anything else and is quite bored by the whole thing. He prefers Green Day, a recycled punk band. Sometimes, in the car, Luke will say, 'Listen to this, Dad. Did you ever play real music like this?' And Cave will reply, his knuckles whitening on the steering- wheel, 'No, son, I never played music like this.'

Next month the Bad Seeds are going on tour again, and although Cave won't be doing any more kneedrops (years of doing them have taken their toll on his knees, and his spine has suffered slightly from the backflips he used to do onstage with the Birthday Party) he sees no reason why he can't go on performing live indefinitely, 'as long as I can do it with a certain amount of grace'.

In the past, he would cling on to things in the fear that they might evaporate. Now his life has attained some sort of order. He has just a handful of friends ('Why is that?' he asks. 'What's wrong with me?') and he has his family and work. When pressed, he says he has no guardian angel. 'But I have something which seems to be a marriage of my conscience, my muse and God - and maybe it's all the same thing, I don't know. But I feel protected by that.

'That and the missus.'


http://www.nick-cave.net/board/album_pic.php?pic_id=87

I'll be back with more stuff tomorrow... :)

[S. PLISSKEN]

Shit!!! I will not be able to get my hands on this until after Sunday. How long will this thread be open before the next record is chosen so I can post my thoughts when I do get it sometime next week?

[Ren Hoek]

Snake, I think this thread won't be closed very soon. You can post your thoughts whenever you want to. :)

Here's a No More Shall We part review from The Onion A.V. Club (http://www.theonionavclub.com):
The master of meshing gloom and doom with sturm und drang, Nick Cave takes delectable pleasure in doling out dire punishment. He's like the Old Testament God wreaking havoc on the world he created, packing his songs with characters whose horrible actions make redemption a struggle, if not an outright gamble, while he sneers viciously at their plight. Cave's last full-blown album with his band The Bad Seeds, 1996's chilling Murder Ballads, offered a song cycle of violent cause and effect, laced with a contempt for humanity sour enough to perhaps get some of it out of his system. His next album, 1997's The Boatman's Call, credited The Bad Seeds but mostly relegated the band to the background, sticking to spare and relatively sedate songs about as far removed from Cave's electrifying early work with The Birthday Party as they could be. No More Shall We Part reconvenes The Bad Seeds, but the disc again sounds out of place compared to most of Cave's other group efforts. As with The Boatman's Call, the mood is quiet and mostly reserved, and though Biblical themes rule the disc, his resigned but confident delivery makes it sound as if less is hanging in the balance. Or, conversely, as if his characters have no more to lose. Long, winding songs ("As I Sat Sadly By Her Side," "Hallelujah") define the disc with their lingering, haunting melodies. But while epics like "Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow," "The Sorrowful Wife," and the instant Cave classic "Oh My Lord" eventually build up steam, Cave just as often doles out simple, beautiful songs like "Love Letter," "Gates To The Garden," "We Came Along," and the oddly Bowie-esque "God Is In The House." Another welcome sign of the bright light at the end of Cave's dark tunnel is the involvement of folk sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle, who not only counterbalance Cave's rich, dramatic baritone, but also demonstrate his continued desire to work with artists outside his usual circle of fiends. Cave has built his coffin and now he has to lie in it, but these tiny stylistic shifts bode well for his future. After all, the thought of Cave lightening up once seemed ridiculous, but now that he's toned down his intensity to such pleasant effect, it's hard not to cheer his transformation. Maybe redemption isn't so far out of reach after all.

- Joshua Klein

And here's another very cool review of No More Shall We Part. "Blending the swank sophistication of Bryan Ferry with the realistic narrative skill of Randy Newman and the confessional peaks of Cohen and Walker, [Cave] captivates with every word" pretty much sums up why I love this album so much. (source: SPLENDID E-Zine (http://www.splendidezine.com/))
I've often wondered who really buys Nick Cave records. I don't mean this as an affront to Cave's fans -- and obviously there are a lot of them, or Cave wouldn't be on a major label. I simply can't envision many situations in which anyone would say "Hey, let's listen to some Nick Cave!" No More Shall We Part is a beautiful, elegant record, capably fulfilling the promise of The Boatman's Call, but it exacts a harrowing toll from the listener. This is not a record to which you can listen lightly; if used as background music it will gradually darken your mood, like poison seeping slowly into a well.

This is Cave's first album since turning forty, and he's showing his age -- in a good way. Bitterness and sarcasm have given way to world-weary acceptance and a sincere desire for understanding. The relationship between an artist and his broken heart is a complex ballet of give-and-take, and Cave shows his mastery of it here. This is a man who no longer needs to turn every doomed romance into a murder ballad, whose stories no longer dovetail predictably into Southern Gothic violence and whose indifference toward God and Christianity has been supplanted by a comfortable awareness of his own spirituality. Clearly more at ease with faith than he's ever been before -- and seemingly having realized that the concepts of God and Christ are valid and admirable, their perceived failings in fact attributable to fallible Christians -- Cave seems satisfied to skewer human hypocrisy with jet-black irony, as in the chilling "God is in the House". Naturally, the remission of Cave's religious ambivalence gives an entirely different feel to his most gospel-tinged moments -- without ironic barbs, their soul-searching rings true in a way it never did before. Losses are felt more acutely and deliverance is more sincerely sought. Like a film director abandoning special effects in favor of dialogue, Cave finds emotional resonance in tiny, unique details, painting rich and engrossing pictures in a thousand shades of sadness. He plays light against dark in surprising ways, noticing the brightest flowers at his lowest moments and indulging an apparent fascination with kittens as symbols of goodness.

Vocally, Cave has never been better. Blending the swank sophistication of Bryan Ferry with the realistic narrative skill of Randy Newman and the confessional peaks of Cohen and Walker, he captivates with every word; it's easy to picture him poised languidly in front of a piano, ever-present cigarette drooping from his fingers. He croons silkily on "As I Sat Sadly By Her Side," unleashes an impassioned plea for forgiveness on "Oh My Lord" and reaches the height of elegant moodiness on "The Sorrowful Wife". For the final moments of "God is in the House", he slows to a wrenching a capella whisper-sing; the song's success depends upon playing its final, ironic twist utterly straight, and Cave pulls it off wonderfully, reinforcing the dual meaning of the title without ever acknowledging it. Whenever you think you've seen the bottom of his bag of vocal tricks, he pulls out something new.

The music, too, is stunning. Lushly orchestrated strings, pristine piano, subtle guitar work and sweetly gorgeous backing vocals (courtesy of the McGarrigle sisters, I believe) are the order of the day. Above and beyond the stellar music are moments of absolutely transcendent beauty. The teary-eyed "Love Letter" might well send chills down your spine for its entire four minutes, but Warren Ellis' violin, Cave's vocals and piano occasionally align to create moments of such unbridled, heart-stopping emotion that you'll be hard-pressed to keep your eyes dry. This is not rock and roll. Your local record shop will file it in the Rock section, yes, but it's something far more complex. Elements of rock creep in on "As I Sat Sadly By Her Side" and flare aggressively on "The Sorrowful Wife", among others, but No More Shall We Part grandly and gleefully defies categorization, as it should.

A gloomy record? Yes. A beautiful record? Yes. A record to listen to when you're alone, sitting in a dark, old house, sipping gin and mourning lost love? That's your choice. After a day spent listening to No More Shall We Part, I'm suffused with a quiet, modest satisfaction, for I've shared a piece of deeply personal, lovingly crafted art. And so I return to my initial question: Who buys Nick Cave records? In the case of No More Shall We Part, the answer is simple, really. You do...if you're smart.

- George Zahora

:)

[BakeTheMooCow]

I'll miss out on this because I have a flight later today.. but I'll try to join the next one..

[bedhead_dl]

Hey what's going on?
When's it gonna happen?
I'm here on Sunday at 18.00 hours (GMT) and don't know what to do?
What do I do?
BCV I'm lost!
I'm alone!
and scarily paranoid!


Help...

[John Dark]

Originally posted by bedhead_dl
Hey what's going on?
When's it gonna happen?
I'm here on Sunday at 18.00 hours (GMT) and don't know what to do?
What do I do?
BCV I'm lost!
I'm alone!
and scarily paranoid!


Help...

You're six hours early.

Go back to bed.

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by bedhead_dl
Hey what's going on?
When's it gonna happen?
I'm here on Sunday at 18.00 hours (GMT) and don't know what to do?
What do I do?
BCV I'm lost!
I'm alone!
and scarily paranoid!


Help...

MIDNIGHT you muppet.

Oh, 'tis very amusing.

[Ren Hoek]

*lol* Don't you love it when you give a party and the guests are six hours early?! ;)

Okay, tonight's the night. I hope a lot of schmoes are going to participate and discuss. I'm not TOO keen on "moderating" this all the way through (I'm simply not good at this kind of thing), announcing every song and telling you what it's all about. You have to find out for yourselves what Mr. Cave's cryptic lyrics are trying to tell us...


Only 4 more hours. Aaaah, sweet shivers are running down my spine. I'm excited, folks! :)

[John Dark]

I got the album and read the whole thread and thought I was ready to go. And now there's a big thunderstorm rolling in - I can see the first edge of it over the hill out my front window.

So, I'll be here, provided that there's no lightning in the area.

:confused:

[BadCoverVersion]

I'm having trouble downloading one last track (yup, I'm downloading due to the fact that I'm on the bones of me arse at the moment)...:(

But hopefully I'll be raring to go come midnight.

If I don't manage to get it afore the kick-off (It's We Came Along This Road btw)...then you'll just all have to hum in unison or something...I'll have a fag and reeeeeeelax.

Anyway, a nice PICCY attachment of dashing Mr. Cave.

Work that CIGGIE dude.

[Ren Hoek]

Crap, just saw that my CD is all scratched (just got it back from my friend the other day) and it won't play the 2nd track properly. Uh-oh, methinks I have to pay this guy a visit tomorrow :mad: ;)

aaaah, still 45 minutes left... I'm off for a ciggie.

[BadCoverVersion]

Dagnammit.

I hope Bowieee aint too late...he'll be joining us at the halfway point it seems.

Where the bloody HELL is everybody?

Friggin' feck.

Ooooooh, 20 minutes...I'm all excited.

[John Dark]

Originally posted by BadCoverVersion
Dagnammit. Where the bloody HELL is everybody?

Friggin' feck.


My prediction: this is just going to be you, me and RenHoek.

This board has zero traffic.

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by John Dark
My prediction: this is just going to be you, me and RenHoek.

This board has zero traffic.

An intimate soiree my friend...somebody pass the cheesy-pineapple ones.

I know Calf is definitely getting involved.

:)

[Ren Hoek]

Pass the gin, Miss Cover Version ;)

Where's Monsieur Psychocandy? I thought he'd fancy this idea...

3 minutes...

[paul calf]

righto the cocktail sausages are open,the babycham is chilled the dry ice machine is kicking in,so we must be starting soon.

[BadCoverVersion]

Ooooooooh, 2 minutes.

When I say "BO", everybody say...

"SELECTA"


Hmmm, this is going to bags 'o' fun.

[Ren Hoek]

Coming up...

http://www.nick-cave.com/lyrics/bad_seeds/images/no_more_shall_we_part_s1s.jpg

[BadCoverVersion]

...and we're off.

Okay, I haven't listened myself...so this jingly, jangly, tinkly, piano, stringy stuff is nice.

Nick Cave has got one HELL of a voice on him. Luverly stuff.

See LYRICS here! (http://www.lyricsdepot.com/album/no-more-shall-we-part.html)

Awwwww, isn't this lovely folks...:)

[paul calf]

as i sat sadly by her side

very dramatic song superb intro,the violins and piano are very haunting,the lyrics are great too quite complex and vivid in parts lots of refrences to a kitten not sure but its a very deep,very good opening track.

i am going to read the lyrics i need to work out the stuff with the kitten

[Ren Hoek]

One on my faves on the album.

Nick The Man Cave talking to his wife... Cave has eventually become a family man, including the obligatory kitten.

"Witness the man reaching up from the gutter, see the other one stumbling on who can not see". Not so sure about this part... Social criticism was never Cave's strong side, rather social satire.

But maybe he's just being sarcastic. "I could not wipe the smile from my face" when I saw her crying...

Huh? :confused:

[John Dark]

The first track is pretty theatrical, both musically and lyrically....even for Nicky. I liked the first 10 seconds of intro quite a bit though.

[Ren Hoek]

Aaaah, I hope the scratches on my CD don't fuck it all up. I've tried playing this song earlier today and it didn't work. Thank gawd it's not exactly one of my favourites...

*crosses fingers*

[Ren Hoek]

I don't know, but somehow this song doesn't connect well to the majesty of the opening track. A wee bit too simplistic...

Coming up is "Hallelujah".. much better! :)

[BadCoverVersion]

...And God does not care for your benevolence
Anymore than he cares for the lack of it in others
Nor does he care for you to sit
At windows in judgement of the world He created
While sorrows pile up around you
Ugly, useless and over-inflated...

Pretty beautiful stuff...smashing little opener there.

And No More Shall We Part.

Now this is typical Cave aint it just...!? Melancholy, but truly inspiring...his voice is fucking GORGEOUS here, and the lyrics are just perfect...

And no more shall we part
Your chain of command has been silenced now
And all of those birds would've sung to your beautiful heart
Anyhow...

That one definitely tops the opener...methinks I'm going to like this album.

[paul calf]

track 2

and no more shall we part.

i feel like i have been draggen into some dark celler for this one,i reallylike it though,again quite dark and dramatic but i liked this one a lot,more so than the first track it was simpler but had a lot of depth and feeling to it.

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by RenHoek
I don't know, but somehow this song doesn't connect well to the majesty of the opening track. A wee bit too simplistic...

Coming up is "Hallelujah".. much better! :)

Oooooh, gotta disagree with ya' there Renster...that second one was purty.

[John Dark]

So far, the second track is 10x better than the first. Restrained use of instrumentation. It lets Cave's voice take center stage. First one felt too forced.

This is like a beautiful dirge/euology.

ooooh. Gospel tinged (at about 3:15) too!

A+

[John Dark]

Hallelujah's not grabbing me so far. Seems a little "blah"


Some of the lyrics are a little ridiculous too.

[Ren Hoek]

Now this is a song Johnny Cash could have written at his peak. Beautifully orchestrated, brilliant lyrics, carefully built-up climax...

"I'd given my nurse the weekend off
My meals were ill prepared
My typewriter had turned mute as a tomb
And my piano crouched in the corner of my room
With all its teeth bared
All its teeth bared All its teeth bared
All its teeth bared."

I always liked songs best that tell a story. And this story is just wonderful, with light hints of bitterness...

"I turned back home I turned back home
Singing my song"


And the chorus gets louder, more majestic, more impressive each time... luvit! :)

[BadCoverVersion]

Hallelujah doesn't really do it for me VOCALLY, but the sad strings are pretty special...wait a SEC, Cave is getting a bit giddy now and starting to spit it out...NICE.

This one is probably a grower...and I must admit, some parts do stand out.

I do like the female vocals...they're almost stilted if you get my gist...and anyhoo, next track is up.

Still favouring the 2nd track myself.

[paul calf]

the 2nd track for me was a real winner ren

track 3
halleluia

the man is very theatrical in his style it sounds like he is quite emotional singing this one,its a little overlong and drawn out in parts but it has some excellent lyrics again

I left my house without my coat
Something my nurse would not have allowed
And I took the small roads out of town
And I passed a cow and the cow was brown
And my pyjamas clung to me like a shroud

he must be an intersting guy to watch live because his words and music have so much emotion thrown into them.

[John Dark]

okay at 5:29 in Hallel. his over the top just went over the edge.

[John Dark]

great ending though.

[Ren Hoek]

"Love Letter" is totally free of any sarcastic notes. Nice for a change... Somewhat reminds me of some of Van Morrison's early songs.

next one is the second single...

http://www.nick-cave.com/lyrics/bad_seeds/images/no_more_shall_we_part_s2s.jpg

[BadCoverVersion]

Love Letter.

I like this one...it's got that Waitsy feel...back alleys, a bottle of whisky and plenty of fags...but with a bit of CLASS on top.

A wicked wind whips up the hill
A handful of hopeful words
I love her and I always will
The sky is ready to burst

Awwwwww, now those are winning lines IMO.

I really like this one, just a charming little ditty, and it would fit on any nice romantic mix-tape.

Thumbs up for Love Letter.

[John Dark]

He needs to find better production. His string and piano arrangements are so common that he needs to more aggressively distinguish the sound from your run of the mill schmaltz.

Right now his voice is the main thing carrying the album and making it stand out.

[paul calf]

track 4 love letter

now i have downloaded the live vertion by mistake here,but i think i may have done myself a little favour because it gives me a real sense of the man that you just cannot get off cd's sometimes.
a real smoked filled balled,jesus the words to this song are great the opening few lines are simply perfect.
I hold this letter in my hand
A plea, a petition, a kind of prayer
I hope it does as I have planned
Losing her again is more than I can bear
I kiss the cold, white envelope
I press my lips against her name

the music is understated because the words say it all,now my fave so far.

[John Dark]

Love Letter really only came alive for me at around 3:00.

[John Dark]

Fifteen Feet - This could have fit perfectly on Amore del Tropico. So, naturally, I love it. It's the highlight for me so far.

[John Dark]

More interesting melody, too.

Also, the lyrics go a little better with the music than the other songs.

[BadCoverVersion]

Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow

Hey, did he just say "Dark"...big shout-out to Senor Dark.

Let me hear ya say "BO!"...

Anyway, this one has a darker edge, that tinkly piano sets it apart...ooooooh, but I'm not sure about the "na-na-na's", they just put a pisser on the song for me.

Like a big gay chorus a la Johnathan Ross.

Other than that, it's a good "filler" as far as I can make out. A bit of an odd one for a single IMO, but hey, what do I know?

Good crescendo mind...I like waily Cave, and he's getting a bit ballsy when it hits the 5 minute mark.

So far, so good...I'm still satisfied.

[Ren Hoek]

I love the cryptic lyrics of this song, though the orchestration is a tad too conventional for my taste. Love that chorus though...

Does anyone know what he's talking about?

"Doctor, Doctor
I'm going mad
This is the worst day
I've ever had
I can't remember
Ever feeling this bad
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Where's my nurse
I need some healing
I've been paralysed
By a lack of feeling
I can't even find
Anything worth stealing
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow"

And definitely too many songs about religious issues at the beginning of the album. A little bit more balance would've been welcome.

Fuckin' beauty, the next song is my favourite :)

[paul calf]

track 5

15 feet of pure white snow

a bit more upbeat than the previous numbers,this one needs a few listens too,but as a one off i am not sure quite a lot going on,it started a bit so so,but half way through it really kicked in and changed direction,i have a feeling this is a real grower.

[John Dark]

Ack! Lightning too close for comfort.

That's it for me, kiddies. I like this so far, but not so much that I want to risk my computer.

[BadCoverVersion]

Actually, God Is In The House is pretty SUPERB.

I remember seeing him perform this one on Jools Holland (I detest the man, but his show is COOL)...and I was fixated.

That furrowed brow, and the pained VOCALS.

This is ACE, end of.

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by John Dark
Ack! Lightning too close for comfort.

That's it for me, kiddies. I like this so far, but not so much that I want to risk my computer.

Awwwwww, ta-ra John-boy.


God Is In The House is my favourite thus far...KICK-ARSE vocals...and just a GEM of a tune.

[Ren Hoek]

Cave's bitter sarcasm at its best. His little ode to all the places in pastoral America you never want to see. This song never fails to crack me up...

"Homos roaming the streets in packs
Queer bashers with tyre-jacks
Lesbian counter-attacks
That stuff is for the big cities
Our town is very pretty
We have a pretty little square
We have a woman for a mayor
Our policy is firm but fair
Now that God is in the house"

Cave's whispering voice at the beginning scares me a bit, as well as the town he's singing about.

Hmmmm, now the violins kick off... wonderful. The wispering, again, all culminating in in grand finale. Great!

[paul calf]

track 6

god is in the house

ok what the fuck is going on with these kittens they get another couple of mentions here as well.

another good track the lyrics again are great,the piano is just enough to carry the song along.but the star of this mans show is his words he really does have a flair for writing.the violin solo in the middle of the song is great as well just giving your ears time to take it all in.

these words are pure genious though.

Well-meaning little therapists
Goose-stepping twelve-stepping Tetotalitarianists
The tipsy, the reeling and the drop down pissed
We got no time for that stuff here
Zero crime and no fear
We've bred all our kittens white
So you can see them in the night
And at night we're on our knees
As quiet as a mouse
Since the word got out
From the North down to the South
For no-one's left in doubt

[paul calf]

track 7

oh my lord

almost gospel in parts,in his own dark and theatrical style though,you get the feeling that a lot of leonard cohen has been listened too by nick he has not copied anything i just feel it in the style in which everything is done.he is a lot more complex but the same dark lyrics are there to hear.

[BadCoverVersion]

Oh My Lord

Now this isn't a POOR tune by any stretch of the imagination, but it'll have a tough jobbie beating the majestic God Is In The House.

Now l'm at the hairdressers
People watch me as they move past
A guy wearing plastic antlers
Presses his bum against the glass...

Lol...:D

I loved his "fucking" there...just totally grabbed me by surprise.

Cave swears with STYLE.

This tune just takes off at around 4 minutes, and I've completely misjudged it...it's SUPERB. Full of pissy attitude and the angry crashing of cymbols and tuneless scratching of strings just RAWKS.

The vocals are TOP-NOTCH and I'm thinking a SHOPPING TRIP is certainly in order.

Yowzers, this is a cracker.

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by paul calf
ok what the fuck is going on with these kittens they get another couple of mentions here as well.

Snap.

He likes his kitty-cats.

:confused:

[Ren Hoek]

It's cool to see Cave pushing his voice a little bit further here. And a bit cussing never hurts...

I "dig" the feeling of paranoia, anger, desperation in this tune...

"Now I'm at the hairdressers
People watch me as they move past
A guy wearing plastic antlers
Presses his bum against the glass
Now I'm down on my hands and knees
And it's so fucking hot!
Someone cries, "What are you looking for?"
I scream, "The plot, the plot!"
I grab my telephone, I call my wife at home
She screams, "Leave us alone!" I say, "Hey, it's only me"
The hairdresser with his scissors, he holds up the mirror
I look back and shiver; I can't even believe what I can see"

The orchestration is, again, exceptional. Maybe the best of all tracks on the album. I'm a sucker for these somewhat distempered violins...

"Oh I hate them, Ma! Oh I hate them, Pa!"

Pretty ehausting song. Now I need a healthy dose of "Sweetheart Come" to recover...

[paul calf]

track 8

sweetheart come

probably the weak link for me so far,nice enough but the chorus left me a bit cold,the violins were really nice though.

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by RenHoek
"Now I'm at the hairdressers
People watch me as they move past
A guy wearing plastic antlers
Presses his bum against the glass
Now I'm down on my hands and knees
And it's so fucking hot!
Someone cries, "What are you looking for?"
I scream, "The plot, the plot!"
I grab my telephone, I call my wife at home
She screams, "Leave us alone!" I say, "Hey, it's only me"
The hairdresser with his scissors, he holds up the mirror
I look back and shiver; I can't even believe what I can see"

The orchestration is, again, exceptional. Maybe the best of all tracks on the album. I'm a sucker for these somewhat distempered violins...

I hear ya' Ren.

Superb lyrics.

Sweetheart Come

Nice one to bring me back down to Earth...lovely instrumentals once again, and simplistic lyrics...and a subtle side of Cave...

Bliss.

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by paul calf
track 8

sweetheart come

probably the weak link for me so far,nice enough but the chorus left me a bit cold,the violins were really nice though.

I dig it's "place" on the album though...I reckon it was needed after the last two belters.

[paul calf]

track 9

the sorrowful wife


I married my wife on the day of the eclipse
Our friends awarded her courage with gifts
Now as the nights grow longer and the season shifts
I look to my sorrowful wife
Who is quietly tending her flowers
Who is quietly tending her .....

again superb opening lines,that really drag you into the song,the piano again is great its so full of passion and feeling that you get every emotion that he is feeling.

[Ren Hoek]

"The Sorrowful Wife". Another brilliant opening line...

"I married my wife on the day of the eclipse
Our friends awarded her courage with gifts."

Fab piano tunes, the lyrics are a tad disquieting. Can't put my finger on it, but maybe it's the "Who is shifting the furniture around" stuff ...now don't look at me like that! ;)

And the song takes a surprising turn. Not exactly one of my faves, but still better than the pretty mediocre "Sweetheart Come"... fading out.

[BadCoverVersion]

The Sorrowful Wife

We're all about the lyrics here...dripping in poetry and a thick slice of that tinkly piano again.

"Now we sit beneath the knotted Yew
And the bluebells bob around our shoes
The task of remembering the telltale clues
Goes to my lovely, my sorrowful wife
Who is counting the days on her fingers..."

Just hitting the 3 minute mark though and it thwacks you on the side of the head...that familiar Cave passion.

Jesus, this guy knows how to express himself.

Seriously, this is a HELL of an album, it hasn't really hit a "bum note" yet...there have been a few lulls, but nothing of real note.

Bloody fab'.

[Ren Hoek]

Originally posted by BadCoverVersion
I dig it's "place" on the album though...I reckon it was needed after the last two belters.
I would've probably collapsed without this track ;)

[paul calf]

track 10 we came along this road


a good album track pretty solid,good lyrics and good music again i loved the last 90 seconds or so,losts of orchestral instruments which are always a great boost for any song to me.

[BadCoverVersion]

We Came Along This Road

The weakest of the bunch so far...it's elegant, melodic...but a wee bit uninspiring in comparison to most of the other tracks.

Hmmmm, nothing truly "grabs" me here I'm afraid.

[Ren Hoek]

"The world is spinning beneath me"

Another damn good but simple track. Again, decent piano tunes and a subtle, haunting chorus... barely audible til the orchestra and the haunting violins kick in.

[BadCoverVersion]

Gates To The Garden

Some beautiful lyrics once again...

Fugitive fathers, sickly infants, decent mothers
Runaways and suicidal lovers
Assorted boxes of ordinary bones
Of aborted plans and sudden shattered hopes


S'about time for a slow waltz here...Cave delivers, and pictures of lovers and dimly lit streets fill me noggin.

This is gorgeousness and gorgeousity, and I love the way it leads you into the last tune.

Great stuff once again.

[Ren Hoek]

"Beneath the creeping shadow of the tower
The bell from St.Edmunds informs me of the hour
I turn to find you waiting there for me
In sunlight and I see the way that you breathe
Alive and leaning on the gates of the garden"

I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but I love the piano here.

The lyrics feel a bit uninspired, too schmaltzy at times. I prefer the sarcastic, edgy Cave...

*preparing for the finale extraordinaire*

[Ren Hoek]

Again, Cave proves to be the master of building up the tension, kicking off in a very subdued mood up until...

"Babe
It seems so long
Since you've been gone away
And I
Just got to say
That it grows darker with the day"

A woman's voice joins him in his mournful ode to a long-lost beloved person.

It's simply a beautiful love song with a very dark, tragic note. The sense of loneliness and longing for this woman is haunting, gripping... makes me all tearful... honestly :(

[BadCoverVersion]

Darker With The Day

Fucking FABULOUS closing track, I feel like I'm coming down here...and Cave's voice sounds truly superb...strained, heartfelt, sad, longing...and almost naive.

It's almost as if he's wrapping up the whole album, this is his conclusion so to speak...I'm probably talking BOLLOCKS here, but never mind.

Amateurs, dilettantes, hacks, cowboys, clones
The streets groan with little Caesars, Napoleons and cunts
With their building blocks and their tiny plastic phones
Counting on their fingers, with crumbs down their fronts...

It's "open-ended" nature appealed to me...y'know, fuck crescendo's and neatly wrapped parcels.

Jeeeeees, am I making any sense?

[paul calf]

i apear to have lost gates to the garden i cannot find it anywhere yet i am sure i downloaded them all oh well onto

track 12 darker by the day

a real epic track a great finisher on this album

Amateurs, dilettantes, hacks, cowboya, clones
The streets groan with little Caesars,
Napoleons and cunts
With their building blocks and their tiny
plastic phones
Counting on their fingers, with crumbs
down their fronts

once again great lyrics superb piano and the mans personality stamped all over it,
so to finish this was the first nick cave album i have ever listened too and i quite enjoyed it,a little repetitious in style but by enlarge very good the standouts for me were,love letter and gates to the garden.
so it was a very good album to kick things off with imo it gets a very respectable 7.5/10 for me.
i just hope more people reveiw later or in the next couple of days.

[Ren Hoek]

Jeeeez, I got totally lost and forgot to post what songs I was talking about. Well, methinks it's too late now...

Kudos to BCV for this fab idea and thanks to everyone who participated! :) I hope we can do this again soon and, hopefully, more schmoes will join us then.

[BadCoverVersion]

Anyway, shame we didn't have more schmoe participation peeps...but HEY-DIDDLY-HEY, I didn't half enjoy myself tonight.

Stunning album Ren, I'm sold...and I'll definitely be whacking that one in my HMV basket next time I'm in town.

Loved it, truly did...

Highlights

God Is In The House
Oh My Lord
Darker With The Day

The only track that left me a tad "blah" was We Came Along This Road...but even so, not a bad tune.

I dunno, I just like Mr. Cave...he's instantly recognisable...and lets be honest, his sound is COOL as FUCK.

Oh, and he drinks beer and smokes tabs and swears like an Oirish man.

Anyway, thanks a BUNDLE Ren...:)

Hopefully a few more reviews will pop up throughout the week.

I'm talking to YOU musak schmoes!

[Ren Hoek]

Hmmmm, why has Mr. Dark left us halfways through the album?* :confused:

Anyways, I'm glad you and Paul liked it. I'm actually quite surprised that our project went that smoothly. But hey, I guess you can't expect huge debates about an album when you give it a listen in such an intimate circle of friends. ;)

[edit]
*found out... duh! :p

[BadCoverVersion]

Originally posted by RenHoek
Jeeeez, I got totally lost and forgot to post what songs I was talking about. Well, methinks it's too late now...

Kudos to BCV for this fab idea and thanks to everyone who participated! :) I hope we can do this again soon and, hopefully, more schmoes will join us then.

Hey, don't worry about it...we got the gist Ren.

Would you mind selecting the next album mate?

Just so's everybody knows I'm an honest mod'.

*Nudge and a wink*

[Ren Hoek]

Originally posted by BadCoverVersion
Would you mind selecting the next album mate?

Just so's everybody knows I'm an honest mod'.

*Nudge and a wink*
Aye Aye, Captain! Avec plaisir :)

I'll make a blind pick and announce the next album in the other thread tomorrow...

[bowieee]

Oh MY fucking god. i can't believe I forgot about this..... I had the album dusted and ready to play. I had my mind on a bunch of hoopla about work while not even thinking. Well it looks like the guys who did participate had fun! I'll definetly try to make the next one.... Is there anyway we can push it back 45 minutes? or is that too late for the schmoes on the other side of the world?The time when this one started I was stuck in traffic watching brake lights light up :)

[areyoubeingserved]

Originally posted by bowieee
Oh MY fucking god. i can't believe I forgot about this..... I had the album dusted and ready to play.

ditto...

damn that final year of school and all that follows in its wake...

lets see what the next album is.

[notchreturns]

I've only been able to download two of the songs of Kazaa with my crappy 56k... Love Letter, which was good, nice piano, didn't really "hit me", but it was still a solid song, Cave has a great voice... and The Sorrowful Wife, which is a lovely tune. Really liked the piano and different arrangements, the vocals and lyrics were very good, too.

[PrettyInPink]

Ren I appologise with all me heart mate.

I did start to download the album, kept stopping and starting. But was feeling rather shitty last night and basically it was a blanket over me head and hide from the world night.

I am however going to download the rest of the songs and review each and every one for you cause you deserve it. BTW im the one that lost out cause seems like you guys had loads of fun.

Will be back with my reviews soon.:D

[Psychocandy]

About 11:30 last night I started to yawn and before I knew it I was nodding off. I was just too damned tired to last the pace. I will post a track by track review of the album. It's not my favorite Cave album by a long stretch but it is very good. Sorry for being such a wuss. :(

[BadCoverVersion]

Keep on posting your thoughts and reviews SCHMOES.

Thanks once again Ren.


Coming soon...

De-Loused In The Comatorium - The Mars Volta

Courtesy of NOTCHRETURNS.

I'm looking forward to it already.

[bowieee]

Originally posted by BadCoverVersion
Keep on posting your thoughts and reviews SCHMOES.

Thanks once again Ren.


Coming soon...

De-Loused In The Comatorium - The Mars Volta

Courtesy of NOTCHRETURNS.

I'm looking forward to it already.

`OOh is it deloused! What are the details and times for this event?