CD Reviews

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds | Expanded Collectors Editions | Let Love In | Murder Ballads | The Boatman's Call | No More Shall We Part

Mute/EMI (2011)

By ZETH LUNDY | May 12, 2011

3.5 Stars

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Expanded Collectors Editions | Let Love In (4 stars) | Murder Ballads (3 stars) | The Boatman's Call (3 stars) | No More Shall We Part (3.5 stars)
The four classic albums that Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released between 1994 and 2001 served as a crucial transition. Let Love In (1994), Murder Ballads (1996), The Boatman's Call (1997), and No More Shall We Part (2001) bridged his early post-punk neo-goth pose with his latter-day rebirth as a restrained balladeer. It's a stretch of albums that lays bare this dichotomy, alternating between savage and tame, profane and repentant, untethered and grounded. Let Love In, arguably the best album in a highlight-ridden discography, remains a benchmark for records with one foot in madness and one foot in the sublime. The Boatman's Call and No More Shall We Part reveal a kinder, gentler Cave and a meditative grace. In between those releases is Murder Ballads, its brooding songs brimming with gruesome homicides, many of them rendered in gratuitous, near-parodic detail. (The narrator in Cave's notorious version of the folk song "Stagger Lee" brags that he'll "crawl over 50 good pussies just to get to one fat boy's asshole.") All four albums are being reissued, in this third wave of an ongoing campaign, as CD/DVD sets loaded with b-sides, videos, new 5.1 surround-sound mixes, and more. For fans, this glut of good stuff is a no-brainer upgrade; for everyone else, it's ground zero for getting to the essence of Cave's duality.

Junior Boys | It's All True
With its disco-bass pulse, jet-engine synths, and seductive half-time chorus, "Itchy Fingers" kicks things off by demonstrating the Boys' finesse for tricked-out, ass-shaking programmed grooves.
Dar Williams | Many Great Companions
The companions of the title are Dar Williams's songs, which the singer-songwriter revisits here two different ways.
The Corin Tucker Band | 1,000 Years
Four years ago, it was guitarist and vocalist Corin Tucker's maternal pull that bore most of the blame for Sleater-Kinney's disbanding.
Clinic | Bubblegum
The name Clinic has always suited the music of these wired-up, post-punk Brits.
Soundgarden | Telephantasm
Aside from an unfortunate crop of John Graham art making the cover look like one of those three-wolf-moon T-shirts, Telephantasm is a solid retrospective for a Seattle metal band who got wrapped up in flannel.
Scarlett is the new Black
Olneyville's finest post-punk/goth/sludge metal outfit went missing for the better part of 2010, but we're ecstatic to report that Lolita Black has returned with a new lead singer in Ms. Scarlett Delgado.
Beady Eye | Different Gear, Still Speeding
Beady Eye's eagerly awaited debut represents Liam Gallagher's uninspiring foray into the spotlight without Noel, his battle-weary brother and Oasis's chief songwriter.
Kurt Vile | Smoke Ring For My Halo
It's weird to write about a guy who operates this close to the classic singer-songwriter template and not even consider the lyrics.
Radiohead | The King of Limbs
OK Consumer?
Photos: The Low Anthem at Old South Church
The Low Anthem celebrated their release of new album Smart Flesh at Old South Church.
Buffalo Tom celebrate 25 years of rock
"If you'd told me 10 years ago I'd be here playing with Buffalo Tom, I wouldn't have believed you," Mean Creek's Aurore Ounjian sheepishly offered up last week at ZuZu, moments before her band closed out a stripped-down, five-song set with a cover of Buffalo Tom's "Would Not Be Denied."
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Topics: CD Reviews , Music, Music Reviews, post-punk, More

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