release date: Aug. 18, 1986
format: cd (1992 Japan reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
producer: Flood, Tony Cohen, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "Muddy Water" - 3. "Sleeping Annaleah" - 7. "Black Betty" - 10. "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"
3rd studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds following The Firstborn Is Dead (1985) is an album entirely of cover versions. This is the first album to introduce an actual drummer, Thomas Wydler, in the band who had used the multi-instrumental skills of Mick Harvey and Barry Adamson. The band still plays post-punk but perhaps even more punk blues, and the album is the first time Nick Cave appears as a crooner. Some of the songs are rather fine and others are poorer covers of great songs, but all in all it's a fine album, and above mediocre... for once by these experimental Aussies.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 3 / 5 stars ]
