Music
Store

Unfortunately, I can't give it as enthusiastic a notice as I would like. Something seems missing for me..so let's look at the factors that affected my decision, shall we?

SONGS: Appropriately dark/tender/tuneful/fast and energetic/sloppily played. OK...so no problems there. The balance is a little too much on the side of Nick that is "The Good Son" and "The Boatman's Call" for my taste, but pretty good nonetheless.

VOCALS: Typical for Nick, throaty and low, Cohenesque at times and harsher at others. Again, nothing wrong there.

MUSIC: Engaging, the usual Bad Seeds' mix of overlapping, ever-so-slightly syncopated playing...cranked up for the fast numbers, muted for the slow ones. Just fine.

So what's wrong? Well, I was going to say the mix, but my problem with this album is that it's missing what drew me to Nick Cave so long ago--abandon. Nick and the Seeds are controlled throughout, rarely giving themselves over to the energy of the moment. I've always enjoyed Nick when his restraints were off, ala "Tender Prey," "Henry's Dream," or "From Her To Eternity." Don't get me wrong, I always liked his ballads, too...very much. But only "Let Love In" has balanced his two sides completely. And unfortunately for either Nick or my maturity level, I prefer his wild, semi-psychotic side. For pensiveness, I listen to Leonard Cohen and Johnny Cash. To feed my wild darkness, I listen to Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Stan Ridgway (esp Drywall). Too bad Mr. Cave can't help me anymore. He's just gotten too polite for me.

There's good music here, and while I respect Mr. Cave's decision and direction, I'm afraid I'll have to leave this one on the shelf more often than not.


Why I Love This Album   February 12, 2003
 10 out of 14 found this review helpful

I am certainly a fan of Nick Cave and there isn't one of his albums that I wouldn't give 5 stars. Now that you know my bias let me explain to you, cut by cut, my impressions of the songs and why I love this album.

1) Wonderful Life: The perfect opener. At once hopeful yet deeply tragic, it is a beautiful requiem for all that can never be.

2) He Wants You: Flowing off of Wonderful Life is this more optimistic and equally beautiful. It is a unique profession of love as Cave portrays himself as a kind of guardian spirit who yearns for his charge.

3) Right Out of Your Hand: Conway Savage lends his lovely voice to sing a duet with Cave here and the result is outstanding. It is a portrait of a desperate, weary soul who has lost everything is pursuit of love and bows endlessly under his true love's will, an act which fills both with great sorrow.

4) Bring It On: A challenge made by some one who has been utterly devestated and knows he may be utterly devestated again. But still, in the name of love, he cries out, "bring it on."

5) Dead Man In My Bed: This is the sound of someone losing it, going off the deep end. The Bad Seeds return with frantic intensity to the power they possesed on older records. A song of anger, regret, fear, and panic all centered around the surpressed schizophrenic mania of an uncontent spouse.

6) Still In Love: My favorite cut off the album. Here Cave urges his love (possibly from the grave) to move on from the past and into a new life but, despite everything, that he's still in love with her. Many different layers of meaning can be read into the lyrics and they are lifted by Warren Ellis's beautiful violin. It's excellent that he's an official band member now. This is a haunting and excellent song.

7) There Is A Town: A wistful song about nostalgia that is short and sweet and therein lies its power.

8)Rock Of Gibraltar: A magnificent love ballad that is lyrically straightforward yet emotionally deep and resonant. "All the plans that we layed could soon be betrayed, betrayed like the rock of gibraltar."

9) She Passed By My Window: There is a yearning for the unattainable, the unknown, the sublimely beautiful. And the yearning brings a great, inescapable sadness.

10) Babe, I'm On Fire: Self described as a lustful, demonic epic "Babe I'm On Fire" is roaring, exciting, funny, and fun. One look at the humorous video shows you that the bad seeds are just having fun with this, letting everything go and turning the song into an epic piece of fun.

This is an album chiefly about love but it is also about the sorrow that is inexplicably entwined with love. It is about yearning, and desire, and restlessness. It is about settling down and getting back up again. It is about the Bad Seeds returning to form, reaching a higher plateau than ever before Not that they'd exacly slipped, quite the opposite in fact. Here is a band that just keeps getting better. As Cave's poetry grows ever more beautiful and the Bad Seeds ever more talented musicians, they transcend the world of popular music. What they do is high art. And they do it damn well.


Slouching Toward Respectability   March 28, 2003
 10 out of 14 found this review helpful

Having become a rabid Nick Cave fan in the last several years, I have been eagerly awaiting the release and arrival of Nocturama.
Industry spin promised a departure from the morose introspection of the last two albums with a return to the wide-open style of Let Love In.
Well, in truth Nocturama is a mixed bag. Lyrically, it is much softer than the last two albums and musically, it is still far away from the violence and rage that imbues much of Cave's older work. Yes, Nick Cave has come a long way since his Birthday Party days, you could almost say he is slouching toward respectability as he mellows with the years.
The best songs on the CD are Wonderful Life, the rocking Bring It On, and the riotous Dead Man In My Bed. The closing song, Babe, I'm On Fire, with its repetitions and its jejune lyrics,is much too drawn out and becomes a liability to this otherwise fairly listenable album. That everyone says "Babe, I'm On Fire" is news to no one.
Several songs, Right Out Of Your Hand and Still In Love, sound like something Van Morrison might do when feeling uninspired. You might even chance to hear them played on a soft-rock station, that's how mellow and bland they are.
If you yearn for the Nick Cave of old, forget Nocturama. But if you are a fan willing to follow him as he develops, then this CD is an obligatory stop on his meandering musical path.


Futher down the beaten path...   May 4, 2003
 9 out of 11 found this review helpful

While there is no such entity as a "Bad Nick Cave Album", this is the one I would recommend last in a long line of excellent albums. That is not to say that it is bad, but i pales in comparrison to the former albums like "No More Shall We Part" and "The Boatman's Call".

Like every Nick Cave album, this has it's various themes such as love, god, salvation, depression, and if I am interpreting it right, mental torture. The lyrics are sharp as always, but not as strong and potent as that of his earlier albums. Where "Nocturama" misses the mark is in the production, which makes the album seem over-produced, and I have the strong "been there done that" feeling when listening to the album. Since Nick Cave has built his career on the evolution of his unique sound, this album can be considered a step back rather than the leap forward that "No More Shall We Part" was.

But I will stress again that this is not a bad album, and should please the casual listened with both it's intense and melodic moments. But for people wanting something that lives up to previous works, I cannot strongly recommend "Nocturama".