mail: daniel_fjall@hotmail.com
|
the first born is dead tender prey the good son murder ballads
The First Born Is Dead Nick Cave is a great storyteller. He often brings back the listener to a time when things were simpler, but more mystical. Dark and cloudy skies, betrayal, graveyards, hard physical labor, prayers, regrets, murders, mournful nights and the mysterious God. And more. This old-fashioned, engaging talent combined with his punk-ish attitude and gloomy piano recalls Tom Waits, but you can also easily see who was the main influence for a band such as 16 Horsepower. However, Cave’s second album hardly displays all these sides to his advantage. The songs never jumps at you. They’re just there. Sounding modern and old at the same time. Bluesy and chilly. But there are no melodies, nothing to cling on to. Nothing besides the atmosphere, and this time around that’s not enough. It’s too monotonous, too lull and unfortunately, Cave’s voice doesn’t manage to grip hold of the listener. The stories passes by un-noticed like the sound of conversations too far away. There’s next to no diversity. It’s only “Tupelo” that falls out of the frame, as it is noisy and faster than the other tracks. There is talent and craftsmanship in this album, but it’s just not very interesting.
Tender Prey Cave (and The Bad Seeds) released a couple of albums between The First Born Is Dead and Tender Prey. Sadly, I haven’t heard any of those. Therefore, it may not be justified to compare the two albums in detail, since I’m not sure how much the sound developed and changed from album to album. However, I know which of them that I prefer. Tender Prey is a nearly perfect album. Intriguing and loaded with hooks. Diverse both musically and lyrically. Soulful and jazzy Tindersticks-sounding “Slowly Goes The Night”, desperate bible-punk in “The Mercy Seat”, a Leonard Cohen/Tom Waits hybrid in “Watching Alice”, a Clash-meets-Ramones rave-up in “Deanna”. It doesn’t matter if the songs are fast or slow, both styles works splendid. You might get a sentimental tear or two, tap your foot joyfully or just sit still and listen to stories about the darker sides of life and feel depressed for a while. A truly affecting album. Another huge improvement is Cave’s vocals. They are less theatrical, but still dramatic enough and suits the songs perfectly. The storyteller inside him is still alive and you can tell by his singing. Aching, pleading, bitter and vicious. Loud and quiet. Destined to draw attention. Craving attention. The band is hot throughout and the drumming in particular makes the songs exciting and moving. Especially “The Mercy Seat” gains from the drumming. It would have been fantastic even without the drums (check Johnny Cash’s version for proof), but that rhythm just adds that little extra, pushing it across that line between great and stunningly magical. All in all, Tender Prey is one of the finest albums by one of the finest songwriters. In fact, with The Bad Seeds being this good, and Cave himself so close to peaking both as a vocalist and a songwriter, I can’t imagine anyone affording to miss this one out.
The Good Son The follow up to the wonderful Tender Prey has a dramatic change in the sound. The Good Son sounds a lot softer around the edges, mostly because of neatly arranged strings, acoustic guitars getting more space, xylophone, airy drums and also the use of South American back-up singers. “Foi Na Cruz” and the title track might make you wonder if the record store accidentally gave you a Paul Simon album. “Foi Na Cruz” is beautiful, but “The Good Son” is even better. The way the joyful chorus is thrown in between the extremely dark verses is indeed capturing. And the fact that the lyrics during the chorus is equally depressing creates a clever contrast. “Lament” and “The Ship Song” are pretty similar. Slow tempo, nice strings and affecting vocals. Well, most of the songs here fits that description. “The Hammer Song” being a major exception, though. It could be a Tender Prey left over, recalling the rougher tracks from that album. It is also the only song here featuring Cave’s dramatic, story telling voice. It’s got nothing in common with “If I Had A Hammer”, in case you wonder. “The Witness Song” is the fastest song here. Very dynamic performance by The Bad Seeds, and Cave himself remains in the same good form he displayed on Tender Prey. It’s a clear highlight of the album (especially the ‘baby you’re a liar, baby, you’re a liar too’ part is stunning) and gospel-punk would be a fitting description. The Good Son is very solid, amazing in places, but it doesn’t get under your skin the same way the predecessor did. A couple of songs are a bit too long, but that’s really nitpicking. Most of the time you’re too caught up in the songs to notice.
Murder Ballads Fitting title. The songs here are extremely dark, dealing with death, rape, murders in desperation and unrequited love, people killing for no reason other than feeling like it. In general, these are the most ugly and worst things imaginable to mankind. Cave twists and turns and makes it poetic and romantic, but still the songs are capable to raise disgust and possibly can’t fail to leave any listener unmoved. Particularly affecting is the low-keyed duets with PJ Harvey and Kylie Minogue, “Henry Lee” and “Where The Wild Roses Grow”. Seductive love stories with simple, yet beautiful, melodies. Rejection, naive victims and evil revenge. Stunning listen, actually, if you use a tad of that thing called empathy. Not all songs are like that, though. Some are just dark, ill-minded and vicious. The violent “Stagger Lee” and “The Curse of Millhaven” are just two examples, with lyrics such as:
‘Last Christmas Bill Blake's little boy didn't come home Or why not:
‘She saw the barkeep, said, "O God, he can't be dead!" Lyrics like that, sung by Cave in his deep, Tom Waits-sounding voice surely gets to you. It’s a matter of delivery, rather than simply just the words. The album ends on a relatively positive note, though, with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Death Is Not The End” (featuring Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Shane MacGowan, Kylie Minogue, Thomas Wydler, Anita Lane and Blixa Bargeld on vocals). Murder Ballads is a thrilling listen. It might be hard to sit through it from the first second to the very last, but thrilling indeed. Scary and spooky, love and sex, drama and pain. Sounds like a decent movie script, doesn’t it?
|