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FEATURE
MUSIC
F
irst, let’s put the unpleasantness
behind us. "There's a devil
waiting outside your door" on
track one, side A of this six-sided
retrospective of the Bad Seeds' first
30 years.
Guitars grate like rusty machinery
and evil echoes hiss in the ditches
as
Loverman
grunts and grovels
towards some unspeakable violation
in a chorus of shearing metal plates.
The rest of the side places
the hellfire go-go of
Deanna
smack between the monochordal
catharses of
Tupelo
and
From Her
To Eternity
: all rolling thunder and
bone-jarring piano and guitars
making like dry-retching demons
and machine-guns.
That was the old Nick Cave:
the brat-poet king of Beelzebub's
court howling bloody vengeance
as he mutilates small animals in
the teeming rain. He'll make a few
slight returns before this 21-song
stocktake is through, but it's the
way the track listing messes with
chronological expectations that
makes it such a thrill-ride.
All vibes and crooning,
The
Weeping Song
ushers in side B like
a whole other musical world, light-
PRESENT), etc. It's a vivid reminder
of Cave's personal evolution, as
much as anything strictly musical.
Opening side C, the eight-
minute slo-mo spiritual collapse of
Higgs Boson Blues
ties itself to a
specific point in his life, the baffled
journeyman grappling with particle
physics and Miley Cyrus in a world
beyond the old understanding.
Popping up at the end of the side
in
Where The Wild Roses Grow
,
Kylie Minogue is already part of the
classical canon by comparison.
More hits? Side D is the one
most likely to garner the largest
number of pops and crackles, neatly
split between the stoic spirituals
Into My Arms
and
Love Letter
and
murderous flashbacks to the creep
and clamour of old in
Red Right
Hand
and
The Mercy Seat
.
Still a cornerstone of Cave's
concerts, the stark divide between
earnest prayers and bloody rampage
is reiterated on the last record:
The
Ship Song
cropping up on Side E
and
Stagger Lee
closing side F with
what is surely the most comically
obscene bloodbath ever staged
outside of the gangsta rap genre.
But it's the accumulated weight,
wisdom and despair of all that
history that drives this collection
home. "Pass me that lovely little
gun/ My dear, my darling one,"
begins the choral epic,
O Children
.
"Forgive us now for what we've
done/ it started out as a bit of fun."
Side F's
Jubilee Street
,
Nature
Boy
and
We No Who U R
are all
cut from the same anxious cloth of
21st century resignation, the older
man's voice sinking deeper behind
the living room curtains as the full
realisation of its transience hits
home.
It hardly needs to be said, but
even wrapped in an embossed
mauve greeting-card cover, it's
every bit as commanding here as
it was in the blood and thunder of
another life.
years and continents removed from
the excoriating outsider blues-rock
shambles of the Bad Seeds' London
squat years.
Just as suddenly, the quasi-
Biblical tone and language jumps
centuries in space-time to the dog-
eat-dog urban American orgy of
Dig,
Lazarus, Dig!!!
, then to the sombre
piano-vocal of
People They Ain't No
Good
, po-faced churchy goodness
to make Shrek weep.
Found photos of 14 Bad Seeds
are randomly arranged across the
inner triple-gatefold, each with their
respective dates of tenure. Anita
Lane (1984). James Johnston (2004
– 2008). Conway Savage (1992 –
With a tracklist compiled by Nick Cave and original Bad Seed Mick Harvey, and
aided by the current Bad Seeds,
Lovely Creatures
is a comprehensive look
into 30 years of
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
' epic oeuvre of work. Available in
standard CD, triple LP, Deluxe 3CD with DVD (featuring rare and unseen footage)
and Super Deluxe Limited Edition Package, which includes the DVD and a
hardcover book featuring personal memorabilia and photographs and a series of
original essays, here
Michael Dwyer
investigates the gorgeous vinyl offering.
It's the accumulated
weight, wisdom and
despair of all that
history that drives this
collection home