release date: Sep. 19, 1988
format: cd (1996 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,22]
producer: Flood, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 2. "Up Jumped the Devil" - 3. "Deanna" - 5. "Mercy" - 7. "Slowly Goes the Night"
5th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds follows two years after Your Funeral... My Trial.
This marks a bit of a return to the former punk rock sound and style. The band is extended by two new members making it a sextet: German keyboardist Roland Wolf(e), and American guitarist Kid Congo Powers, who had only just left the band The Gun Club (also ex- The Cramps). The music here is less blues rock and more alt. rock styled but with clear references to post-punk, and some of the raw energy from the earlier albums are present. Perhaps this is the bands most gothic rock founded album. Still, it has the band's characteristic theatrical or cabaret rhythm at its base, which is part pub rock and part drunken sailor chants. All in all, not really great but more than just interesting and close to the sound and style of Your Funeral... My Trial.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide, Uncut 4 / 5 stars ]
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide, Uncut 4 / 5 stars ]
