Tuesday, July 2, 2013

'Henry's Dream' & 'Murder Ballads' & 'The Boatman's Call' & 'Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus'



It seemed a daunting task diving into four albums of Nick Cave’s five-minute dirges. I tackled it head on: Just queued all four up in a row and spent three hours mowing through them.

I’m no Nick Cave fan, but I’m not one to hate him either. I will probably not listen to these albums again but I can appreciate a guy that’s made a pretty nice career for himself doing semi-melodic spoken-word albums steeped in story telling straight from the hard edge of the Australian bush. Truly, if Cave has any cohort in this world, it’s Johnny Cash. He’s not the best singer, his music isn’t the most pleasant to listen to, but he’s ghoulish from the subject matter, to wardrobe and overall presentation.

I must say this: It sorta floors me that Cave somehow got four albums onto the 1,001 list. Good, but not four-album good.

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