|
diversions:
cd review
Bad Seeds newest
release offers complex sounds
Ryan Ritchie
Special to the On-line Forty-Niner
"No More Shall
We Part," the new album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds,
is one of the few albums California State University Long
Beach students and their parents can both listen to and enjoy.
Previous releases
by Cave have had piano-driven songs that were a bit mellower
than their other material. "No More Shall We Part"
is 12 piano-based songs that are anything but typical piano
music.
Any fan knows it
wouldn't be a Nick Cave project if God and religion were not
mentioned. Songs such as "And No More Shall We Part,"
"Hallelujah" and "God Is In The House"
all display Cave's unique ability to write about God without
coming across as religious. Cave uses religion not as a way
to show his beliefs, but as a way to delve into the unknown.
His obsession with the macabre dominates almost all of his
lyrics.
The Bad Seeds'
previous album, "The Boatman's Call," was Cave's
first attempt at using love as a recurring theme throughout
his songs. The album threw fans for a loop and critics were
unsure what to make of the new direction Cave was going.
Fans and critics
did not know where "No More Shall We Part" would
go, but upon hearing the new album, Cave's return to darker
themes has been openly welcomed. The album is as much a change
musically from previous records as "The Boatman's Call"
was lyrically from previous releases.
Cave's crooner-style
voice blends perfectly with the orchestration behind him.
The bouncy bass lines and violins add the perfect touch to
Cave's harmonies. Unlike many records released nowadays, guitars
are not the driving force of the songs. The first song, "As
I Sat Sadly By Her Side," starts with a guitar and is
rarely heard until the long leads and solos of the sixth song,
"Oh My Lord."
This version of
The Bad Seeds includes long-time members Blixa Bargeld, Mick
Harvey and a slew of other musicians. Harvey, along with Cave,
was a member of the Australian punk band, The Birthday Party.
After disbanding The Birthday Party, the two went on to form
The Bad Seeds. Early Bad Seeds material showed signs of The
Birthday Party, but never reached the aggressive state they
reveled in.
With support from
punk-turned-poet Henry Rollins and a spot on the now defunct
Lollapalooza tour, The Bad Seeds have always been the band
mainstream music would flirt with but never date. This new
release should get The Bad Seeds the recognition they deserve,
but it probably won't. The current state of music will not
know what to do with this album. The alt-rock sounds of previous
Bad Seeds records have been replaced by the melodramatic vibe
of "No More Shall We Part." If fans still haven't
figured out what The Bad Seeds were about before, they'll
never understand this masterpiece.
|
