Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds new record recieves five stars.
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
Abattoir Blues/the Lyre of Orpheus
***** (out of five)
Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, the 13th studio album from the enigmatic Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds delivers everything one could hope for from rock 'n' roll's most paradoxical front man. The double album features his usual piano-driven rhythms and raw-edged aggression punctuated with soulful ballads and searing vocals. Although the tone is lighter than Let Love In or No More Shall We Part, there is enough bloody-mindedness to satisfy the starkest of Goth fans. Cave strikes a poetic balance of introspection and aggression while supplying a cast of characters from Nabokov to Temptresses who "quote Sappho in the original greek".
This record is rife with ol' "Fire & Brimstone" Nick's standard religious focus. The atmosphere on this album is less overtly Biblical without being any less spiritual. In fact, the intellectual tenor borders on pantheism: Cave's heart-wrenching lyrics brewed on the beauty of nature while celebrating the passion of love. The album juxtaposes images of "routine atrocity" with the "the song of the sparrow." Cave's wit and lyrical acuity is ever-present, whether he is describing "lepers coming down with nervous hysteria" or depicting the dead littering the land, moral codes getting jammed, only to "wake up with a Frappuccino in my hand".
The first single, "Nature Boy", is nothing less than a good old rock 'n' roll jaunt--backstopped by the London Community Gospel Choir--to love and lust driven by Cave's fascination with nature. The addition of the Gospel Choir to the record somehow gives it an Australian Outback rockabilly sensibility.
Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus delivers all the twisted imagery, tortured prose, exquisite melody, and literary expertise one expects from Nick Cave. Simply, the record is Cave doing what he does best: singing about love and longing, weaving in literary and spiritual imagery, and leaving us with all the heartache of love and longing.
ANNA KESSLER
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