Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "The Boatman's Call" (1996) - got it
Cave had described the experience of making previous album "Murder
Ballads" as 'a holiday'. It was an album of twisted stories with
gorgeous arrangements that Cave could lose himself in.
"The Boatman's Call" is completely the opposite. The cover once again
features a picture of Cave, this time a bleak black and white
rendering. The songs are all painfully personal, alluding to breakups
(Cave had recently divorced his wife and had a brief relationship with
PJ Harvey), religion and a generally cold view of the word. The Bad
Seeds, responded to these songs with sparse arrangements (in some cases,
just a piano backing Cave's deep croon) putting Cave even more in the
burning spotlight.
The result though is a beautiful collection of songs that somehow manage
to take pain and sadness and make something from it (like a rainbow
after the fall if you want a trite analogy). "Into my arms"
may be one of the most beautiful songs written by anyone. "Brompton
Oratory" is a suitably hymn-like song for the church of the same name in
London (I've been, it is a beautiful building).
"People Ain't No Good",
"Where do we go but Nowhere" and "(Are You) the One That I've Been
Waiting For" tell tales of heartbreak that almost seem to revel in the
pain they're exorcising.
The next few Bad Seeds would move away from this kind of bare honesty
back into a more narrative and sometimes character-driven form of
writing, but this album is rightly held up as one of the best in the
band's canon.
No comments:
Post a Comment