For me this is true. The later 90's and the 00's are my favorite decades of his. I like this melancholic and melodic sound. The bombast of NMSWP and AB/LOO is lovely. And I love, love, love the dynamic between Warren's violin and Blixa's guitar on NMSWP, as seen on the live performances of 2001. I also love the Dirty Nick from Grinderman and Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! From Push The Sky Away onwards I lost my interest, because the music didn't resonate with me. I do appreciate that Nick evolves in his decades-spanning career. Nick also seems to need a collaborative partner. It used to be someone in The Birthday Party. I forgot his name. Then it became Blixa. Around The Boatman's Call it shifted again to Warren. Blixa realized that, and left. I've found this explanation by Nick from 20.000 Days on Earth very enlightening. Blixa and Nick have collaborated later on. Blixa did the German audio book for Bunny Munro and also some tour dates with Nick in Germany. And Blixa performed with Grinderman in 20?? and he invited them for a BBQ in his San Franciso house. Blixa is in 20.000 Days on Earth. And Blixa was supposed to come and record on a track on Push The Sky Away, but he was sick. Warren & Blixa in 2014.
I was a new fan that came along after PTSA. I fell in love with that album. It moved me in the present moment like few albums do. When his vinyl reissue campaign started, my intention was go back through his catalog and acquire each album for my collection and dig further into the band. Years later, I have all the albums except two titles (Tender Prey and Let Love In). I've been doing this patiently as I'm trying to acquire the EU pressings of those reissues of better pressing quality. I haven't been able to devote enough time to make a fair assessment of the entire catalog but I do think I prefer the work from Henry's Dream to present. I still have a lot to discover here though, so I'm not dismissing the early albums. I think I only listened to Skeleton Key once or twice and Ghosteen just a few times. They are great but heavy. It was at a Leonard Cohen concert where a conversation with a stranger in the seat next to me led to my exploration into the music of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. I look forward to listening to CARNAGE.
I totally understand someone finding Skeleton Tree or Ghosteen heavy going, emotionally and so on. I don't understand people suggesting they 'don't have melodies', or that Nick Cave is simply 'rapping' or 'speaking' the lyrics. I especially don't understand people claiming they are only liked and respected as albums because of the personal context with Nick, which is actually a rather glib and bizarre idea, in my opinion.
point taken I did really enjoy Ghosteen but can't listen too it often I guess I think his late period style is getting repetitious and predictable. I want the old Nick back.
Listened to it a couple of times. most of it's not really grabbing me. Lyrically, I think it's a bit lazy, especially for Nick Cave. I'm not giving up on it yet, though.
Agreed. I don't like every single thing that he does but that's okay. Nick is in his 60's, so he's not going to be same man that he was some decades ago.
Mick Harvey was Nick's on and off again collaborator, then Rowland, then Blixa, then Mick again then Warren.
Proper listen! Wasn't too fond of Skeleton Tree and couldn't manage to get into Ghosteen. Carnage I do enjoy.
Quite a run of form he’s on. To my mellow ears, his last 4 albums represent his best era. This album isn’t as good as Ghosteen or Push the Sky Away on the first few listens, but it’s still wonderful. Warren Ellis brings out the best in him.
At least we can agree they're certainly pushing the envelope on how low men's dress shirts should be unbuttoned deep into middle age.
I listened to this tonight with my wife and daughter. I found the songs very moving especially Balcony Man and White Elephant but it was Albuquerque which really hit home : And we won't get to Amsterdam Or that lake in Africa, darling And we won't get to anywhere Anytime this year, darling I'm just grateful to be able to enjoy his art which never ceases to impress me. My uncle's at the chopping block turning chickens into fountains I'm a barefoot child watching in the rain That stepped into this song Taken a bow and stepped right out again I'm sitting on the balcony Reading Flannery O'Connor with a pencil and a plan This song is like a rain cloud that keeps circling overhead Here it comes around again
I would have liked to hear a "Stagger Lee"-type rager about an actual White Elephant party Nick attended around the holidays.
"I'm sitting on the balcony Reading Flannery O'Connor with a pencil and a plan" This made me crack up several times already....
My buddy told me the album was out and he said it was amazing. We are both huge Nick fans and have seen him many times in concert over the years. So, I listened to it this evening. I wasn't blown away on first listen. I think my friend's rave review may have affected me negatively in some odd way....because I waited a few hours and listened again. By the end of song 1, I was digging it. By the end of song 3, I was just stunned. I'm sure on my third listen to the album, I'll like it even more. I don't have my thoughts together enough right now to write a real review. The album is affecting me on a very deep emotional, psychological and existential level...because it is so f--king HEAVY. Not in a metal way. It is dealing with and expressing the most painful things we humans have to experience and process. I lost my mother a little over a year ago, and I'm still processing it. I wish I could channel my thoughts and feelings into art as Nick does. What I will say right now is that this album is more than music. More than songs. It exists in an audio format, but it's something different from music. Different from poetry or spoken word. I don't know what to call it. In some way, the songs to me are more like movies or paintings...or memories...or feelings.
I think had Cave turned so markedly into darker territory at this point in his career without a biographical explanation then people would have jeered at him for being a poseur or maybe made jokes about what First World problems he must have run into. The fact that there's a clear biographical explanation does make the move more comprehensible, and it would be a hard-hearted critic indeed who trashed these albums for being too benighted. We have to ask ourselves at times whether, regardless of Cave's personal decision to release his work publicly, there isn't something wrong with eavesdropping on his personal therapy. I'm on record, especially, as saying that One More Time With Feeling felt intrusive. But I think that - if it was ever true - we're past that with Carnage which strikes me as a more measured & public-facing album.
Five-star reviews (!) in NME and the Guardian. Who wants to give me odds on a full 10 from Pitchfork?
At this point, Nick could record himself going to the bathroom and he'd still get 5 star, 10/10 reviews.
I'm not sure that I really agree with this statement. And I'm not a big fan of Carnage, so far. Whatever it is that Nick has been doing for the last 10 years or so, the outcome has resulted in a very deep and personal connection with both fans and critics. Although I relate more to his older work (No More Shall We Part and earlier) I don't believe we can discount his later work as subpar. The reaction to it is very visceral and emotional, for some. Maybe it has to do with more than just the music. Maybe it's his new willingness to communicate with fans on a deep level. Whatever it is, it's translating to a new, very dedicated fan base who feel that his music is above and beyond what almost anybody else in music is doing. I'll admit to this muc: It's hard to compare what he's doing to any other musician. I don't believe that these fans are simply sheep. I know a lot of musicians, artists, critics, etc... who are firmly in the Cave camp, currently.
i listened twice to the full album in full on You Tube . The thing is that it actually sounds more like a Bad Seeds record than his last two : i can clearly hear electric guitars , a real violin , bass , drums , assorted percussions , tubular bells , some horns , harmonium , whereas Ghosteen in particular was mainly electronics , loops and some piano .( not a fan of this album ) And some clear memories of past Bad Seeds glory like the wanabe gospel extended Chorus of White Elephant or some vocal phrasing in Shattered ground very close to Tupelo very good stuff
I wrote to my friend who had urged me to listen to Carnage. I said "It's so goddamn heavy and DARK that it makes Joy Division sound like K-pop in comparison." My friend replied: "Nick is like a village story teller from the year of the black death cc 1350’s. Crazy dark lyrics. Warren is a landscape painter like Bosch with killer instruments." I kept thinking of some of Bergman's darkest movies as I listened. "The Seventh Seal" in particular. But also "The Virgin Spring" and others.
