Nick Cave & Warren Ellis "Carnage" (2021)

Carnage

release date: Feb. 25, 2021

format: digital (8 x File, MP3)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]

producer: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

label: Goliath Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Hand of God" - 2. "Old Time" - 3. "Carnage" - 4. "White Elephant" - 6. "Lavender Fields" - 7. "Shattered Ground" - 8. "Balcony Man"

First actual duo-project credited Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, long time collaborators in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, who most recently released Ghosteen in 2019. However, since 2005 when they made music for the performance "Woyzech", they have co-written music for a large number of performances and films - which are also available as soundtrack releases. Ellis has been a member of The Bad Seeds since the '97 album The Boatman's Call, but has featured on the band's albums since '92, and his role in the band has only grown over time. In '97 he had a minor part playing violin and keyboards as 'extra spice' to the band's sound, from the 2001 album No More Shall We Part he was also credited some compositions, from the 2008 album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! he is a distinctive composer and multi-instrumentalist, and from Push the Sky Away in 2013 he is now credited as composer along with Cave on all tracks, and thus the musical center of the band has shifted to being exclusively a pair collaboration in recent years, with Cave providing lyrics and Ellis supplementing with music. Therefore, the album here is not a huge surprise, since this is how they have worked on their recent three studio albums. The music with The Bad Seeds has thus transformed over the years from being alt. rock towards an increased focus on Cave's lyrics to being a kind of poetic recitations with evocative background music.

On Push the Sky Away you'll notice percussion, bass, and guitar, but it's with instrumentation such as violin, cello, and keyboards as the main sound sources, and there's a stylistic interference with elements from jazz, Tindersticks, and something reminiscent of Tom Waits' experimental style. This new and more naked soundscape becomes even more evident on Skeleton Tree, and with Ghosteen the rhythmic element is now completely absent, replaced by Cave's insistent vocal and Ellis's keyboards as spheric tapestry.

On Carnage you'll find a progression towards more complex compositions, where guitar, bass, and percussion are occasionally heard - mostly on "Old Time". In that way it sounds more like the continuation of Skeleton Tree rather than Ghosteen, but most of all it's a new chapter in the book of human pain, sorrow, and suffering as experienced by Nick Cave. From being a direct dramatic writer who told about crooked existences and people living in the shadows of society, Cave has grown over the past decade into a more lyrical playwright who talks about existential aspects of life and death.

The album has been met by positive reviews - but that's nearly always how it works for Cave. He is, if anything, a critics' darling, and the album has landed several international top-10 positions, including number #2 in Australia, number #3 in the UK, Belgium and in the Netherlands, number #5 in Germany, and a number #1 position in Scotland and Portugal.

It's a nice and fine acquaintance without fillers but perhaps also the slightly expected release. However, the music is good, the lyrics compelling and the level high. It's an album that wins over time because Cave and Ellis are just great together.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, NME 5 / 5 stars ]

Best of 2019:Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Ghosteen" (2019)

Ghosteen

release date: Oct. 3, 2019

format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]

producer: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

label: Ghosteen Ltd. - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Spinning Song" - 2. "Bright Horses" - 3. "Waiting for You" (4 / 5) - 6. "Galleon Ship" - 7. "Ghosteen Speaks" (4 / 5) - 9. "Ghosteen" - 11. "Hollywood"

17th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds as the follow-up to the 3-year-old emotional Skeleton Tree (Sep. 2016). The album is the first to be solely credited exclusively Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and the album has been released in all formats on the band-owned label at the time, Ghosteen Ltd. As a vinyl and CD release, the album comes as a double album consisting of eleven tracks with a total playing time of more than 68 minutes, and the album's first eight tracks - occupying the vinyl sides A+B / CD 1 - are collectively named "The Children" while the last three have been given the designation "The Parents".

Stylistically, it's much like the sequel to the 2016 album, which was seen by most as Cave's response to the recent loss of his 15-year-old son, but as Cave himself later explained, the majority of the songs had already been written when the tragedy struck, and the album's depressed mood can only be attributed to the personal tragedy and grief he and the band found themselves in during the recording sessions. On Ghosteen, the starting point of the songs is on the other hand deeply rooted in the emotions the loss gave rise to, and the album is designed as a universal reaction to the experience of grief and loss, with the poetic expression perhaps taking up more room - asking for more attention - than the music itself. It's not a collection of songs with traditional rhythm structures, but an album that via its style without percussion and drums and instead soaked in string harmonies, spheric piano and keyboard in many ways approaches a pure ambient release.

The album was released almost exclusively to overwhelmingly positive reviews and good rankings on albums charts worldwide, e.g. a No. #2 in Australia, No. #4 in the UK (No. #1 on the independent charts) and No. #12 on the US Top Rock Albums chart. It's a near impossible task to point out the best tracks on an album that is such an overall experience. Ghosteen should be listened to from start to finish, and in the listening process you may try to absorb the musical sensation in approximately the same way as you breathe. It's a very emotional release that contains both touching beauty and deep pain, which is made for meditative moments more than popular-musical entertainment. It does what it's meant to do, to facilitate emotions and support deep sadness, and it most probably works magnificently as spiritual background music. It contains lots of beauty but it's nevertheless also enormously heavy and one-dimensionally sad and as such not made for much else. But then, art itself doesn't need to be multi-purposeful.

My biggest recommendation for grief processing and just overall a big recommendation of Cave's perhaps finest and most delicate output.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4,5 / 5 NME 5 / 5 stars ]

2019 Favourite releases: 1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Ghosteen - 2. The Cranberries In the End - 3. Rammstein Rammstein

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Skeleton Tree" (2016)

Skeleton Tree
release date: Sep. 9, 2016
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Nick Launay
label: Bad Seed Ltd. - nationality: Australia

Tracklist: 1. "Jesus Alone" - 2. "Rings of Saturn" (4 / 5) - 3. "Girl in Amber" - 4. "Magneto" - 5. "Anthrocene" - 6. "I Need You" - 7. "Distant Sky" - 8. "Skeleton Tree"

16th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is a quiet and emotional release with stress under singer / songwriter. During the recording sessions for the new album, Nick Caves 15-year-old son Arthur died from an accidental cliff fall, which naturally, had a huge impact on the completion of the album. Several songs were rewritten, new ones were included, and the sound was altered to fit themes of loss, death and grief. What could have been an almost identical sound and style to its successor, Push the Sky Away from 2013, shows instead a much more scarce instrumentation and an even more naked Cave, who digs in and narrates about his loss. He does that quite wisely, making it an album about general aspects about loss, death and grief, and at the same time manages to create fine songs.
One of the best albums of the year, and frankly, one of the absolute best ever from Nick Cave.

Recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, NME, Q Magazine, The Guardian 5 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "Push the Sky Away" (2013)

Push the Sky Away
release date: Feb. 18, 2013
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Nick Launay with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
label: Bad Seed Ltd. - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "We No Who U R" (4 / 5) - 2. "Wide Lovely Eyes" (live on KCRW) - 4. "Jubilee Street" - 5. "Mermaids" (live) - 9. "Push the Sky Away"

15th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds following 5 whole years after Dig, Lazurus, Dig!!! (2008).

Stylistically, this is still mostly slow ballads in the alt. rock and singer / songwriter category, which means what sounds like a more natural follow-up to No More Shall We Part from 2001. The very first track sounds a bit (too much) like Tindersticks on their most recent chamber pop alt. rock album with some jazz influence, and generally, the first half of the album promise a truly great album but the second half drags it a bit down, I think.

[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5, NME 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" (2008

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
release date: Mar. 3, 2008
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]
producer: Nick Launay, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 3. "Moonland" - 5. "Albert Goes West" - 6. "We Call Upon the Author" - 11. "More News From Nowhere"

14th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds released 3½ years following Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus from 2004 is a more garage rock-styled album, and as such closer to the style of the side-project band, Grinderman, which feature members of The Bad Seeds.
To me, this sounds much like music inspired to some extent by Iggy & The Stooges - more than previous albums by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, although, The Stooges always has been a big source of inspiration for Nick Cave.

I don't find it all bad, it's just not as good as what I have come to associate with The Bad Seeds.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, The Independent, Q Magazine, Spin, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus" (2004)

Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus
release date: Sep. 20, 2004
format: 2 cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,34]
producer: Nick Launay, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights, Disc 1 'Abattoir Blues': 1. "Get Ready for Love" - 3. "Hiding All Away" - 6. "Nature Boy" - 8. "Let the Bells Ring"
Disc 2 'The Lyre of Orpheus': 3. "Babe, You Turn Me On" - 4. "Easy Money" - 5. "Supernaturally"

13th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is a two-disc album - disc one titled "Abattoir Blues" (containing 9 tracks) and disc two "The Lyre of Orpheus" (containing 8 tracks). The album is the first by The Bad Seeds without Blixa Bargeld, who is replaced by British guitarist and organist James Johnston. NC&TBS is here an octet consisting of Nick Cave, Martyn P. Casey, Warren Ellis, Mick Harvey, James Johnston, Conway Savage, and with Jim Sclavunos playing drums and percussion on "Abbattoir Blues", while Thomas Wydler does this on "The Lyre of Orpheus".

Although, having the same producer as the predecessor Nocturama from 2003 the sound and style of the new double album differs considerably, at first sight, in being a more aggressive and almost garage rock album forecasting the 2008 album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!. It's not all uptempo aggression on these 17 tracks, and without simplifying things too much, it could be compared to a fusion of what NC&TBS have released in the past 20 years or so - there are both slow ballads, blues rock anthems, reminiscences of both art rock and post-punk, and the ever-presence of singer / songwriter material, but the overall impression is that of a fusion of styles, and I'm not totally impressed nor entirely disappointed. "Abbattoir Blues" is the rock & roll of gothic rock whereas "The Lyre of Orpheus" is the singer / songwriter part of it, and which is why there are two distinctive parts on two separate discs. The whole album may reflect the two-coined face of The Bad Seeds in more than one way. They cannot skip the aggressive punk roots, and instead of releasing an album that is either what they have been doing on the last 4 albums, or doing what they do on their 2008 album by succumbing to more steamy rock, they "simply" choose both.

However well-produced and well-orchestrated - in every aspect - this album turns out, it's a rather big mouthful to swallow. It's pretentiousness without disguise - but hasn't it always been that with Nick Cave?! Yes, only here, perhaps even more boldly, which in a way says quite a bit. One has to be in the right mood to digest this album, but it functions on many levels, and it's really impressive how they managed to assemble and record all this varied material in less than a fortnight [as producer Nick Launay explains].
The album was generally met by positive reviews, and it's included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" - I like it, it's goood, though, I don't find it really great, and I just find that the great songs are missing on account of lesser compositions. I won't call it essential - not even in a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds discography context.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Blender, Q 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5, The Guardian, Mojo 5 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Nocturama" (2003)

Nocturama
release date: Feb. 3, 2003
format: cd
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]
producer: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Nick Launay
label: ANTI-, USA - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Wonderful Life" - 3. "Right Out of Your Hand" - 4. "Bring It On" - 10. "Babe, I'm on Fire"

12th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds following the two-year old No More Shall We Part is originally released by Mute Records (ANTI- for the American market).

This is yet another quiet, dark and sinister sounding album like its most recent three predecessors without adding much new.

To me, this is a lesser release by Nick Cave - not mediocre but touching on repetitious. The songs are nicely produced and the playing, well, there ain't much complaining about that, it's just a bit... "And so what?" We've heard it all before, and there's like no nerve left - nothing at stake with Cave going through the motions 'cause-that's-what-he-had-to-do - again. A track that seems a bit "way off" from the rest is the almost astonishing final track, "Babe, I'm on Fire" with a running time above 14:30 minutes. Being a much more up-tempo and blues punk composition it would have fitted nicely on Let Love In (1994).
[ allmusic.com 2,5 / 5, The Guardian, Uncut, Q Magazine, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "No More Shall We Part" (2001)

No More Shall We Part
release date: Apr. 10, 2001
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Tony Cohen
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "As I Sat Sadly by Her Side" - 2. "And No More Shall We Part" - 3. "Hallelujah" - 8. "Sweetheart Come" - 10. "We Came Along This Road"

11th studio album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds following 4 years after the acclaimed The Boatman's Call from 1997 is almost as usual an album of ballads. It continues a strong series of albums by Cave and The Bad Seeds initiated with Murder Ballads in 1995, and who by now could seem stuck to this style.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, NME 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "The Boatman's Call" (1997)

The Boatman's Call
release date: Mar. 4, 1997
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Flood, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Into My Arms" (4 / 5) - 3. "People Ain't No Good" - 4. "Brompton Oratory" (4 / 5) - 5. "There Is a Kingdom" - 6. "(Are You) The One I've Been Waiting For?" (4 / 5) - 7. "Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?" - 8. "West Country Girl" - 9. "Black Hair" - 12. "Green Eyes"

10th studio album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds follows only one year after Murder Ballads is a 12 track album. This is the first in a long series of albums where new band member, Warren Ellis on violin, accordion and piano contributes to a new stylistic approach. The album is an even more quiet one from The Bad Seeds, as it's entirely piano-based ballads and basically sounds much like a solo singer / songwriter release by Nick Cave.
My initial verdict made me reject it for the first decade, but I have come to see it as a major work by Cave, and despite the fact that I don't find that obvious many great tracks on the album, I still rate it higher than Murder Ballads, because of a generally higher level and the album comes out as a quite coherent collection of songs.
The album was generally met by critical acclaim and many critics labelled the album one of Cave's most successful releases - it is also included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The strong emotional stories seem made in the aftermath, a troublesome time for Cave as PJ Harvey had let him go prior to the recordings of some of the songs. The songs "West Country Girl", "Black Hair" and "Green Eyes" are said to have lyrics about PJ Harvey [see: Cave interview in The Guardian, and wikipedia ].
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Uncut, Record Collector 5 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "Murder Ballads" (1996)

Murder Ballads
release date: Feb. 5, 1996
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]
producer: Victor Van Vugt, The Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 2. "Stagger Lee" - 3. "Henry Lee" (feat. PJ Harvey) (4 / 5) (live) - 5. "Where the Wild Roses Grow" (feat. Kylie Minogue) (live) - 7. "The Kindness of Strangers" - 10. "Death Is Not the End" (live)

9th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds follows two years after Let Love In is a return to the style of The Good Son (1990) with focus on piano-founded tracks and ballads. The album feature two prominent guest artists: PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue, the latter singing a duet with Nick Cave on the album's biggest hit single "Where the Wild Roses Grow", but I have always liked the duet with Cave and Harvey better. On the final track, a Bob Dylan cover, several guests feature: Anita Lane, Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey, and Shane MacGowan on additional vocals. Generally, I think this is one of the band's better albums. The album is included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
Rumour has it that Cave and Harvey virtually initiated a short-lived love affair, which had its birth from the moment when they recorded the music video for their duet - all done in one take and without much direction. The relationship came to an abrupt end as Harvey turned Cave down, which may be heard on his subsequent The Boatman's Call (1997) [about their relationship].
[ allmusic.com, Record Collector, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "Let Love In" (1994)

Let Love In
release date: Apr. 19, 1994
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,79]
producer: Tony Cohen & The Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Do You Love Me?" (4 / 5) - 2. "Nobody's Baby Now" - 3. "Loverman" - 4. "Jangling Jack" - 5. "Red Right Hand" - 6. "I Let Love In" - 8. "Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore" - 10. "Do You Love Me? (Part 2)"

8th studio album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released on Mute follows two years after the fine Henry's Dream - now with Australian producer Tony Cohen, who has worked with the band on several occasions as either producer (Kicking Against the Pricks' and 'Your Funeral... My Trial) or as engineer (also on the predecessor). Here Cave shows that he has evolved into a singer / songwriter territory but still maintains an "edge" to alt. rock, reflecting his roots in post-punk and noise punk carried out here as (theatrical) art rock or cabaret rock. He has always had a taste for (classic) epic drama and stories involving the true and big emotions. Following Henry's Dream, which I consider his best album, this came as a surprising change, and an embrace of a more mainstream-founded universe to satisfy a broader appeal. His backing band The Bad Seeds are still his Dark Knights making sure he doesn't sell out. I've always had mixed feelings about Nick Cave. I first came across his music when I listened to the debut with his Bad Seeds From Her to Eternity (1984), which I never really understood - I keep trying. His music with his former band The Birthday Party (Mick Harvey, guitarist of The Bad Seeds, was also part of that) were real noise rockers of the "we love Iggy and The Stooges, no wave punk rock, goth and glam and we're not afraid of doing hard drugs either", which was... dark and... bad, and... pointless, imho. Anyway, I like (some of) his stories, his ever-present embodiment of decay, but also at times find it a bit too theatrical, the staged imagery, being the "real bad man" trying to put him aside Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, or some American comic book spaghetti-western anti-hero. From this period and onward, he has developed into an acclaimed author, composer of film music, a true poet, singer / songwriter, and an emblematic figure fully embracing the style of both Leonard Cohen (epic songwriting), Johnny Cash (picking up the man's alter ego 'the man in black'), Tom Waits (the drunken Bohemian attitude and experimental jazz-rock and cabaret), Bertolt Brecht and Fassbinder (the avantgarde drama of modern realism), and all the lonesome cowboys of ancient America.
Basically, I find that Cave is good in small dozes, but I have also learned that I find him better now than I used to, so this album has evolved from being a 3-star album to a 4.
[ allmusic.com, NME 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "Henry's Dream" (1992)

Henry's Dream
release date: Apr. 27, 1992
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: David Briggs
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry" (4 / 5) - 2. "I Had a Dream, Joe" - 3. "Straight to You" (4 / 5) - 4. "Brother, My Cup Is Empty" - 6. "When I First Came to Town" - 7. "John Finn's Wife" - 9. "Jack the Ripper"

7th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds following The Good Son (1992) released on Mute, and for the first (and only?) time with (Neil Young) producer David Briggs, which seems a wise choice. In my mind, this is simply the best album by Nick Cave. On this, he mixes the alt. rock with the more ballad-styled compositions and makes his first truly fine and coherent album. "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry" is spitting angry blues punk and "Straight to You" is a beautiful chamber rock ballad.
Imho, this is the most deserved Nick Cave album to be included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die".
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, Mojo 4 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "The Good Son" (1990)

The Good Son
release date: Apr. 16, 1990
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: The Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records Ltd. Japan - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Foi Na Cruz" - 2. "The Good Son" - 5. "The Ship Song" (4 / 5) - 8. "The Witness Song"

6th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds follows 1½ year after Tender Prey (Sep. '88) and is the band's so far best album. It clearly marks a change of style to a more laid-back, and a much more melodic collection of songs with Cave as crooner, which he succeeds better with than on the covers album Kicking Against the Pricks (1986). There's no experimental rock, or post-punk here, and many of the tracks are piano-driven with strings and backing choir.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5, Q Magazine 3 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "Tender Prey" (1988)

Tender Prey
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 ]

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds "Your Funeral... My Trial" (1986)

Your Funeral... My Trial
release date: Nov. 3, 1986
format: cd (1992 Japan reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,22]
producer: Flood, Tony Cohen
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Your Funeral My Trial" - 2. "Stranger Than Kindness" - 3. "Jacks Shadow" - 4. "The Carny" - 5. "She Fell Away" - 7. "Sad Waters"

4th studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is the band's second album to be released in '86, although, this is the only album with the band's own original songs. Kicking Against the Pricks (Aug. '86) is in that respect more of a playground with material stretching back over time, and Your Funeral... is the mirror of the band's actual condition with Cave sort of finding his way to a sound and style the band would progress from. This is the band's so far best album with a style that would become alt. rock and which draws on blues rock, art rock and post-punk. On top of that, one might add singer / songwriter to the band's repertoire for the first time, with due thanks to Cave's personal writings, although, he may be deep into heroin drug addiction at the time. Without copying, I find that there's a certain amount of inspiration from Tom Waits on this particular album.
The original vinyl release was a double ep album with only 2-3 tracks on each side and with a completely different running order.
[ allmusic.com, Uncut 4 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "Kicking Against the Pricks" (1986)

Kicking Against the Pricks
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 ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "The Firstborn Is Dead" (1985)

The Firstborn Is Dead
release date: Jun. 4, 1985
format: cd (1996 Japan reissue)
album rate: 3 / 5] [3,08]
producer:  Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Flood
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Tupelo" (4 / 5) - 2. "Say Goodbye to the Little Girl Tree" (3 / 5) - 4. "Black Crow King" - 6. "Wanted Man"

2nd studio album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds originally released on Mute Records follows one year after the debut From Her to Eternity.

Compared to the debut album, this is a more melodic album, and it signals a final goodbye to no wave. The line-up here is Nick Cave on vocals and harmonica, Blixa Bargeld on guitar, slide guitar, piano and backing vocals, and with both Barry Adamson and Mick Harvey on bass, drums, guitar, organ and backing vocals. This is in fact an early example of music in the genre of alt. rock, which initially was made up of reminiscences of post-punk and art rock, but here with a certain amount of blues rock influences, although, it still displays obvious experimental and post-punk traits.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone Album Guide 4 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds "From Her to Eternity" (1984)

From Her to Eternity [debut]
release date: Jun. 18, 1984
format: cd (1996 Japan reissue)
[album rate: 2 / 5] [2,16]
producer: Flood, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
label: Mute Records - nationality: Australia

Studio album debut by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
When the Australian band The Birthday Party split duo to disputes within the band about musical direction, Nick Cave and multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey found new partners in ex-vocalist and guitarist of German experimental industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten, Blixa Bargeld (aka Christian Emmerich) and former guitarist of British art-rock post-punk band Magazine, Barry Adamson (both had played with The Birthday Party either live or as substitutes), and together with Australian guitarist Hugo Race they formed the band Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds around 1983, a band which initially also featured songwriter Anita Lane.
The album's title is a reference to the film and novel "From Here to Eternity" (1953) by Fred Zinnemann. The music is in essence a blend of styles attributed both Einstürzende Neubauten and The Birthday Party, which means: art punk post-punk noise rock and experimental rock. The first track is "Avalanche" written by Leonard Cohen but in this version, the track is literally unrecognisable. I've tried, many times to understand or just to come to terms with the music but it doesn't move me one bit. I think it's mostly just noise without head or tail, and I find that this is less interesting than the music by both The Birthday Party and Einstürzende Neubauten. However, the album was met by positive reviews. 

After the release, both Anita Lane, who was only credited as co-writer on this album, as well as Hugo Race left the band.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

The Birthday Party "Prayers on Fire" (1981)

Prayers on Fire [debut]
release date: Mar. 30, 1981
format: digital (2000 remaster)
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,72]
producer: Tony Cohen, The Birthday Party
label: 4AD Records - nationality: Australia

Studio album debut, or: second album by Australian post-punk and no-wave band The Birthday Party... Fact is, it's officially the first under the name of The Birthday Party; however, the same band with the same line-up - under the name of The Boys Next Door - released the album The Birthday Party in 1980, and in retrospect that album has been re-released as the debut by The Birthday Party.

Anyway, this album follows the 1980-album, and the earlier debut album Door, Door (1979) by the same members but under the name of The Boys Next Door, with some of its members who had played together since 1973, and in the current line-up since '76.

Compared to the 1980-album The Birthday Party this takes another step in an experimental direction focusing on art punk and no wave with less harmony structure.

I never really liked this album nor the music of this band all that much, and it's quite evident that this is a different version of post-punk looking at how it was probably less harmonic and melodic compared to its British counterparts, which was overshadowed by gothic rock. This is closer to a clone of American proto-punk (The Stooges), contemporary no wave (Contortions) and German industrial and experimental post-punk (e.g. Einstürzende Neubauten) at the time looking for new ways of musical expression.

After this, the band released Junkyard in '82 before they finally dissolved in '83 and split into the bands Crime & the City Sollution, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 3 / 5 stars ]

The Boys Next Door "The Birthday Party" (1980)

The Birthday Party

release date: Nov. 1980

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]

producer: The Boys Next Door, Tony Cohen, Keith Glass

label: Missing Link Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Mr. Clarinet" - 3. "The Hair Shirt" - 4. "Guilt Parade" - 6. "The Friend Catcher" - 10. "Happy Birthday"

2nd and final studio album following Door, Door (1979) by Australian The Boys Next Door - or: the debut album by The Birthday Party... Yes, seen from a music historical perspective, it's unfortunately common practice to tamper with the facts, and the album here is most often mentioned as the starting point and the debut for The Birthday Party. And in a way, it most certainly is - it was just released by The Boys Next Door BEFORE they made a decisive name change. The album was recorded in Australia in the Summer of '79 and completed Feb. '80, and only then did all five members of the band: Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard, Mick Harvey, Tracy Pew, and Phill Calvert choose together to move to London, UK and here pursue the dream of making a living from making music, and at the same time they changed the band name to The Birthday Party - without changing the band's line-up. So in that way, yes, it is their first album together, only they still went by a different name.

Stylistically, The Birthday Party is a different and more raw release than Door, Door by the same band. The band was early inspired by The Stooges and the raw proto-punk style, and here they show both inspiration from the flourishing post-punk, art rock, new wave, as well as a much earlier experimental expression, as exemplified by Captain Beefheart of the late sixties. It's not yet art punk or no wave, which The Birthday Party later becomes an exponent of, and the compositions here still have traditional harmony structures.

The Birthday Party is a fine example of the creative scene that emerged from punk rock around 1980, and both album and band have been source of inspiration for countless artists since.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone Album Guide 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Reissue debut by The Birthday Party