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 ]

The Gun Club "Pastoral Hide & Seek" (1990)

Pastoral Hide & Seek
release date: Oct. 1990
format: vinyl (ROSE 220 CD) / cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Jeffrey Lee Pierce
label: New Rose Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Humanesque" - 2. "The Straights of Love and Hate" - 3. "Emily's Changed" - 4. "I Hear Your Heart Singing" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "St. John's Divine" - 7. "Another Country's Young" - 8. "Flowing"
[ full album ]

5th studio album by The Gun Club follows three years after Mother Juno (Oct. 1987) and it was originally released on Fire Records. The album is the second in the new formation of the band after Jeffrey Lee Pierce had put an end to the band and initiated a solo career. As usual, Pierce is sole composer of the majority of the tracks, and this time he has put himself in the producer seat as well. The sound may not be impressive but the style is almost certified The Gun Club - a style connected so much to Jeffrey Lee Pierce, his poignant singing voice, his characteristic guitar-sound that no matter who he invites to play with him sounds crystallised as The Gun Club, and that is more than just sufficient. I've all ways linked The Gun Club with the music of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and all days found The Gun Club the more interesting band - or: showcasing a greater potential. In a contemporary perspective I didn't put this band among my favourites - I liked it, though, but may have neglected its qualities because of the lo-fi production, and the ever-present component of country. I think I might have put he band alongside artists like Adrian Borland, Bob Mould, R.E.M. etc [without comparison whatsoever!] had I acknowledged it as much as I do now. Fact is, I just listened to much else back then, and The Gun Club was somewhere in the background: interesting and fine, but not really 'it'. Today, I find that Jeffrey Lee Pierce definitely had 'it', and that he proved it over and over again. I have come to understand why he became a favourite of other artists and also a music critics' icon. This album doesn't contain obvious fillers, and in my mind and in a close race with The Las Vegas Story (1984), I find this to be the band's best.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

[ collectors' item ]

The Gun Club "Mother Juno" (1987)

Mother Juno
release date: Oct. 19, 1987
format: cd (2006 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Robin Guthrie
label: Flow Records (Remaster) - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Bill Bailey" - 3. "Lupita Screams" - 4. "Yellow Eyes" - 5. "The Breaking Hands" (4,5/ 5) - 6. "Araby" - 7. "Hearts" - 8. "My Cousin Kim"

4th studio album by The Gun Club originally released on Red Rhino is the band's first release after its reformation and it follows more than three years after The Las Vegas Story (1984). Between these two, Jeffrey Lee Pierce released his solo album debut, but for this he has reformed the band together with guitarist Kid Congo Powers, bassist Romi Mori (lead guitar on #4), and with drummer Nick Sanderson. Pierce has written and composed all tracks and they really sound like no one else - also here. Blixa Bargeld of The Bad Seeds play guitar on "Yellow Eyes". It's quite amazing how the band seems to just continue where the 1984 album ended, considering that one half of the band wasn't taking part in the making of that album. I never got hold of any of their original albums at the time of their release, but Mother Juno was an album that I found at the local library but didn't quite appreciate back then. The only album that I really liked was The Las Vegas Story from 1984. The version, I have of Mother Juno is a remastered edition including the bonus disc titled "The Berlin Tapes", which is a very nice find. "The Breaking Hands" is a marvelous track - fans of the band would probably call it over-produced, and it IS a strange cocktail to have Robin Guthrie as album producer. Stylewise, The Gun Club and Cocteau Twins are nowhere near each other, or with regards to genre for that matter, but I really like this album as it has a fine delicate feel of garage rock, the ever-present hesitating energy of Pierce, and a productional side that tries to catch up and embrace it all, but still leaves room for all the quirkiness.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

The Gun Club "The Las Vegas Story" (1984)

The Las Vegas Story
release date: Jun. 1984
format: cd (2004 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,82]
producer: Jeff Eyrich
label: Sympathy for the Record Industry - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 2. "Walkin' With the Beast" - 3. "Eternally Is Here" (4 / 5) - 4. "The Stranger in Our Town" - 5. "My Dreams" - 7. "My Man's Gone Now" - 8. "Bad America" - 10. "Give Up the Sum"
[ full album ]

3rd studio album by The Gun Club follows nearly two full years after Miami (Sep. 1982) and was originally issued by Animal Records. The 2004 remaster comes with one bonus track.
In the aftermath of Miami, The Gun Club experienced a major change of members with Jeffrey Lee Pierce as the only remaining member, which may explain the longer time between albums. Patricia Morrison was a new stable bassist in the many new formations of the band in the following years. Drummer Terry Graham had been sacked and replaced but returned, then he refused to carry on, then he was replaced, but eventually he is still the drummer on this album. Guitarist Kid Congo Powers also returned from a period playing with The Cramps, and together they formed the new quartet who recorded The Las Vegas Story, which is nicely put together and also better produced than its predecessor. The style is with less reminiscences of post-punk and psychobilly, and instead it has a more profound blues rock at the base of an alt. rock sound. Strange as it may seem with the ever-changing band members, it's still an album with a sound and style that is unmistakably The Gun Club, which only goes to show that Jeffrey Lee Pierce is nearly synonymous with the band.
To me, this is one of the band's most memorable albums. It demonstrates a fine balance of the alternative rock, a bold blues line, and that certain Jeffrey Lee Pierce combo of white energy and trembling fragility.
Within less than six months after the new album release, tensions within the band made Pierce decide to put an end to the band and they performed a number of farewell concerts before disbanding in late '84. Kid Congo Powers initiated work with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and Jeffrey Lee Pierce worked on and released his first solo album Wildweed (1985). However, in '86 he regrouped a band and restarted the name The Gun Club.
[ allmusic.com, Mojo 4 / 5 stars ]

The Gun Club "Miami" (1982)

Miami
release date: Sep. 20, 1982
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,55]
producer: Chris Stein
label: Animal Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 2. "Like Calling Up Thunder" - 5. "Devil in the Woods" - 9. "John Hardy" - 11. "Sleeping in Blood City"

2nd studio album by The Gun Club follows one year after Fire of Love but has a much more polished sound than the raw debut, which had put the band's name on every ones' lips. That may be the reason to how Blondie composer and guitarist Chris Stein ended up in the producer seat, and that may not have been the brightest decision. The band members list credited on the album is unchanged from the debut. Yes, Jeffrey Lee Pierce had been head of the Blondie fan club and simply adored Debbie Harry, but the sound / style of The Gun Club is really not part of the same neighbourhood as Blondie, and that was perhaps what Stein assumed, I think. The sound here fits what Blondie did - a more pop-founded new wave with a certain rawness to it, but basically, Blondie never was really dirty - they were never labelled punk. The Gun Club soothed of rawness, and of everything that's stuck to the other side of the coin of... "prettiness". The band is more in the same category as The Birthday Party, The Bad Seeds, with a direct link to Iggy and the Stooges, and as a modernised version of Rolling Stones. Debbie Harry (credited as D.H. Laurence Jr. on the album) is credited for adding backing vocals to the album, and although, Pierce may have been thrilled and honoured by the presence of the Blondie-couple, they do not add anything good to The Gun Club.
After this album, the band went through a major change as bassist Rob Ritter left to join another band and Pierce fired guitarist Ward Dotson (who had replaced Kid Congo Powers) and drummer Terry Graham.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Mojo, Uncut 4 / 5, Q Magazine 3 / 5 stars ]

The Gun Club "Fire of Love" (1981)

org. cover

Fire of Love [debut]
release date: Aug. 31, 1981
format: cd (2000 remaster)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,22]
producer: Chris Desjardins, Tito Larriva
label: Last Call Records (re-issue) - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Sex Beat" (3,5 / 5) - 2. "Preaching the Blues" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "Promise Me" - 4. "She's Like Heroin to Me" - 5. "For The Love of Ivy" - 7. "Ghost on the Highway" - 11. "Goodbye Johnny"

Studio debut album by L.A. post-punk band The Gun Club consisting of songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Rob Ritter on bass, Ward Dotson on guitars and slide, and with Terry Graham on drums. The band changed members throughout its 16 year lifespan. Lee Pierce is almost synonymous with The Gun Club, as he was the only lasting member through various formations of the band, however, these were the four members at the time of the recordings for this album. The Gun Club plays an energetic form of post-punk with a clear garage rock influence, which comes out as rockabilly, psychobilly, and what some would call punk blues. I guess, at the time of the release another label would have been art punk. The mix of styles puts the band in family with another legendary band, New York-based The Cramps. The album has aged, but it really was something else in 1981, when most bands of the punk scene, either played post-punk as art punk, no wave, gothic rock, or psychobilly, but this is quite original with its inclusion of blues rock and garage rock in an up-tempo and melodic way, although Pierce was influenced by the relatively new style of no wave. The band and Jeffrey Lee Pierce has been source of inspiration for many artists including Danish Sods / Sort Sol, Thin White Rope, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and in modern days: The White Stripes. From the early 1980s, I recall, a rather well-known record store in mid-town Copenhagen, who had taken its name from this album's first track: Sex Beat Records.
It's not all great but I really like the singing voice of Jeffrey Lee Pierce, which consists of both an uncertain craziness and a disturbing fragility, and then I'm quite pleased with the garage rock sound on most of the tracks - an element they [or: he] maintained on all albums by the band. Sometimes, however, the band tend to play with too much psychobilly, at least on this album, which make me think of The Cramps. The album is somehow the only by The Gun Club to be included in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". Personally, I don't find it among the band's 3 best.
[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Uncut Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]

2000 remaster

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 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 ]