Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

Murder Ballads

Cave Gives Birth To Another Album Of Murderous Proportions

Review Score:

(10/10)
Nick Cave and his backing band, The Bad Seeds, have once again graced their fans with another masterpiece. The album opens on a dark little number called "Song of Joy", a tale of loss and of impending doom. Cave takes on the voice of a wanderer who reveals the tale of his family's bloody murder. The soundscape provided for this track is beautifully played by the Bad Seeds, ranging from distant windy melodies and tortured guitar and percussion beats. The album continues on with brilliantly violent songs sang from the perspective of the murderers; i.e. "The Curse of Millhaven" and "O'Malley's Bar." The few exceptions to these songs are the duets. In "Henry Lee", PJ Harvey sings the part of a deadly harlot who dumps the body of her victim into a well. In "Where the Wild Roses Grow", Cave sings a love song with the Australian pop queen, Kylie Minogue, as his victim Elisa Day. This story unfolds as a romantic tale of a woman's first love who eventually becomes her undoing. Cave and Mick Harvey wrote an enchanting string arrangement to back this song, making it one of their best. If it wasn't for Cave's sense of humor, this album wouldn't have been as strong. Thankfully, Cave added the little tune "The Curse of Millhaven." He sings this tune from the point of view of a blonde adolescent girl. Amazingly, the song doesn't sound ridiculous. Only Cave could successfully sing the story of a pre-teen murderess and get away with it. Murder Ballads is Nick Cave's most bluntly morbid album, filled with lines like "They found Mary Bellows cuffed to the bed/ A rag in her mouth and a bullet in her head" and is also stocked with plenty of La La Lie choruses. This work has quite a bit of shock value, but only Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds could make death sound this sweet.

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