Without wanting to reduce his reputation to something as cheap as a brand name, Nick Cave really is one of the few performers out there you can rely on not to let you down. "Nocturama" - his (strewth!) 12th studio album with dark and dapper henchmen The Bad Seeds - is testament once again to the unstinting power of the great man's muse.
That said, the one aspect of Cave's work that was causing the odd worry line for this reviewer was his apparent desire to continually refine his songs and their presentation. Both the stark and personal "The Boatman's Call" and the beautifully orchestrated "No More Shall We Part" were fabulous records, but the dark lord's reliance on piano ballads seemed to be in danger of unfairly demoting his ever-faithful backing group.
"Nocturama", though, is (to paraphrase) the one we've been waiting for. Yes, it contains several gentle ballads (and they're great, it goes without saying), but there's a wide, emotional scope to this album and a feeling of all the participants pulling in the same direction again that makes "Nocturama" such an engaging experience.
Much has been made of the fact "Nocturama" re-unites Cave and Mick Harvey with ex-Birthday Party producer Nick Launay (also responsible for work by Talking Heads and PIL amonst others), but it's significant that he's undoubtedly loosened up the peformances and introduced a spontaneity that (for me) has been missing since "Let Love In."
There's loads to get excied about here. "He Wants You" is the natural successor to "Nobody's Baby Now"; "Right Out Of Your Hand" is superbly weighted with a chorus that's almost Bacharachian in its' execution and the tense, exasperated new single "Bring It On" is a suitably emotional duet with another of this writer's heroes, Chris Bailey from The Saints. It also knows a bloody good crescendo when it hears one and is reluctant to let go of the chorus's whiplash fury.
And for those of you who've missed the brain-blistering psychosis of "Jangling Jack" or "Jack The Ripper" will love the murderous (yes!) Stooges-style intent of "Dead Man In My Bed". As Harvey and Bargeld go into meltdown and organs overheat terminally, Cave spews "He used to be so good to me, now he smells so fuckin' bad!" and the whole thing climaxes with a chant of "We've got to get it all together"that sounds like a diseased cousin of Jim Morrison's refrain on The Doors' incendiary "Five To One". Domestic disharmony gets a knife between its' teeth and then some.
|
That it's followed by the dignified lilt of "Stil In Love", with Blixa's creepy guitar and Waren Ellis' mournful violin is a measure of The Bad Seeds'nimble capabilities. "Nocturama" also harbours a further clutch of classics in the heady intrigue of "There Is A Town," the almost perky (steady on!) "Rock Of Gibraltar" and the sumptuous "She Passed By My Window", emboldened by Ellis' heavenly violin emblems.
Actually, we'd be heading for a perfect 10 here if it wasn't for the histrionic 15-minute workout of the closing "Babe, I'm On Fire". Although it kicks off with one of Martyn Casey's best-ever basslines, its' caterwauling car-crash blues soon makes you realise why Cave left the likes of "Dead Joe" in the mists of the past. Rather like the turgid "Revelations" that closes LOVE'S otherwise briliant "Da Capo", it's incongrous and shatters the atmosphere, even allowing for that wonderful line about "the fucked-up Rastafarian."
It's a shame, then, that I can't quite make the case for "Nocturama" as the ultimate Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album. Instead, we'll have to settle for "their most magnificent effort since "Let Love In." Shucks.
|
