Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part

No More Shall We Part contains a greater wealth of musical invention and lyrical intelligence in its 68 minutes than most acts manage in an entire career. Cave is not merely in a different league from most of his peers; he's scarcely even playing the same game. No More sees a renewed emphasis on the virtuosity of Cave's longtime backing band, the Bad Seeds (Cave's last album, 1997's superb The Boatman's Call was a relatively sparse affair). The Seeds decorate the sprawling ballads on No More Shall We Part with aplomb, helped on several tracks by the crystalline harmonies of folk singers Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Cave's lyrical preoccupations remain constant--God, love (and the loss thereof), and death. As ever, Cave deals with these themes with great agility and imagination, and, as ever, he is funnier than he is generally given credit for. --Andrew Mueller Amazon.com\'s Best of 2001

No More Shall I Deny You

I suppose my first exposure to Nick Cave was the inclusion of "Red Right Hand" off of the sountrack to "Dumb And Dumber",only I never realized it.Sadly,the song never intrigued me enough to seek the artist out,nor did "The Curse Of Millhaven",(much more recently) having heard it played numerous times from a friend.It just didn't sound like "my" kind of music.Yeah,stupid me.

Another Nick Cave incident came about when my girlfriend and I saw Guns N Roses back in 2006;Myself,being one of Axl's greatest admirers,I obviously was going to enjoy it,but for her,my obsession was just something she tolerated.So her reaction to it was a surprising one:Seeing GNR is like hearing Nick Cave for the first time,as if your being let in on some great secret.

Again,my inability to let Nick Cave into my life would prevail.

It wasn't until a few weeks ago I gave Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds a proper listen.Shortly after the release of his new (and quite good)"Dig,Lazarus,Dig",my quest for Nick Cave began.Thanks to a 4-star review (courtesy of Rolling Stone),I figured .. Why not?

It is difficult to say where I started,exactly.I headed to Youtube,and immediately,songs like "Into My Arms",and "(Are You) The One I've Been Waiting For" just spoke to me.Whether I liked it or not,Nick Cave was about to shoot straight into my top 5 of all time greats.

As for this wonderful gem of an album here,"No More Shall We Part",all I can say is ... Nick,I love you.

The album starts off with "As I Sat Sadly By Her Side",a definite classic,and it just soars from there.I admit to being partial to Nicks piano work,in all of his demented,crooning glory,and this record is a perfect example of just that.

"God Is In The House",is possibly the the funniest,and yet most heartfelt song containing the word "God" I have ever heard,with the exception of maybe The Beach Boys "God Only Knows".

"Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow","Oh My Lord",and "Love Letter" are another few that grabbed me instantly.Musically,these songs are something to be heard,with simplistic,yet touching piano work,beautifully accompanied by Warren Ellis violin playing.Throw Nick Caves lyrics into the mix .. Sometimes humerous,sometimes haunting,usually always beautiful .. And you've got something unique here.

I would reccomend this album (or Nick Cave in general) to anyone and everyone with a pulse.Anyone with a desire to hear something new.Anyone.

The secret is out.Nick Cave is a genius.



April 20, 2008

best ballads ever

I'VE BEEN A DIE HARD FAN SINCE "THE BIRTHDAY PARTY" AND IT AMAZES ME THAT HE CONTINUES TO PUT OUT BRILLIANT WORK. I HIGHLY RECOMEND THIS FOR OLD AN NEWCOMING FANS!!!!!!!!! April 5, 2008

Amazing

This will be short. It is one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard. I cannot believe I used to hate this guy. April 5, 2008

An Antti Keisala Comment: What A Friend I've Found

If you've read any of my comments it's evident that I have the bad habit of tossing exclamation-marked praise rather directly. The problem that arises is of course a psychological and a linguistical one. For one, when we use a word like 'beautiful' many a times we drain it from its proper meaning and all the rich associations we connect to the word 'beautiful'. These are important words, and the most important we bring so close to our heart they integrate to our being; so when we drain a life out of a word and becomes a graveyard we put in motion a change in our aesthetic self, and ultimately we bury ourselves to that very same graveyard of words.

I had to arrive and get through such contemplation in light of this album; if anything, this particular record - and much of Cave's work in general - evokes feelings in me as a listener that need those words that very often become shades of a cliché. Beautiful, bittersweet, heartfelt. This only to give the right impressions to the reader. I presume this might be evidence of a limited vocabulary of a foreigner but also of the great power of art; that is, I do believe that when we become conscious of being in the presence of great art, we do lose ourselves, and our words.

Every single song on this album cries perfection, and - I don't wish to sound bohemically and self-consciously (too late?) sentimental that turns into ridicule and the grotesque - I can't get past the title track without playing it a ten-fold times, repeatedly; and I can't help myself, when getting to the point where he sings "Lord, stay by me, don't go down/I'll never be free, if I'm not free now/Lord, stay by me, and don't go down/I never was free", without breaking in tears.

Gosh.

I stress that great art shapes our personality by becoming infinitely close to us; this album brings this notion from an abstract realm to a deeply personal level. Tarkovsky is to me like a friend, a confidant, a brother. Especially this from all of Cave's wonderful body of work feels the same: this is a place where to escape from the world, to be immersed within, to seek when in need of a place to stay by yourself for a while. This is intimacy at its most intimate, fidelity at its strongest, a blanket you can wrap around yourself and be immersed in the warmth.

My personal definition of a romantic is a collector of moods and of memories, living lucidly by letting art enchance life. A lucid music life builds around albums and songs, melodies and silence you accept in your life. "No More Shall We Part" sits by mine own heart; if you wish by all means give it a listen if it enchants you too.

With best regards,
AK
March 19, 2007

A few lines of anger and despair is all it takes....

One of the greatest achievements of Lord Nick Cave that he is a master of both the ballad form and the more heart throbbing rocksongs, or in Nick's case, the Old-Testament-like outbursts, and the fact that The Singer is capable of switching from one to the other in less than a split second. Watch the live performance in Paradiso on the double dvd `Road to God knows where / Live at Paradiso' and witness how The Man easily alternates scream-what-you-preach-songs like `The mercy seat', `Tupelo' and `From her to eternity' with slow paced songs like `In the ghetto' and `New world'.
The live dvd `God is in the house' shows how He does more of the same. It's a particular talent that is something not a lot of artists really possess. Tom Waits can do it, this perfect mix of introvert and extrovert music. The Angels of Light can do it. But who follows?

From Cave's debut `From her to eternity' all the way to `Murder ballads' Nick Cave presents us both slow and hard, impressionistic and expressionistic. Implosions and Explosions.
But then, in 1997, Nick surprised both friends and enemies with the all-ballad (of rather: just ballads) containing `Boatman's call'. Some consider this one of his best achievements, and that may be so lyrics-wise, and even so emotionally, the lack of musical supernova's made me feel al little lost at first. After some years now, I've learned to appreciate it, but still in a different way than any other Nick Cave album.

So when a few years later `No more shall we part' was announced I feared for more of the same, because voices were saying that this one was musically much alike . Dark, sad, and intens in emotions and feelings, but still paced and slow.
But for some mysterious reason this one grabbed me by the throat and never let go. The opening song `As I sat sadly by her side' sets the tone: a melancholic piano theme guids the listener through a sad song, but the melancholy presented here is more manic, restless, as if not at total ease like in `The boatman's call'. The violin and female voice on `Sweetheart come' are heartbreaking, and Nick Cave's whispering on `God is in the house' ear shattering.
And talking about those long loved but lost outbursts.... `Fifteen feet of pure white snow' is even rocking and groovy enough to dance on (if you want proof: watch the video which you can find as a bonus on the `God is in the house' dvd), and on the most haunting track `The sorrowful wife' Nick Cave does looses his temper for a few seconds and cries out. It's just a few lines he cries out, and they are perhaps the only couple of lines he screams on the entire album, but Nick's voice here is intense and desperate enough to both scare and please the listener at the same time.
Hey, there is that duality again. The Nick is back.
February 10, 2006

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