Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues

Having been a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fan since I was exposed to the Tender Prey record in 1987 I was very anxious to hear his first double album or double cd if you want to be more specific in this digital age. I thought Nocturama, the previous album, was a weak effort after No More Shall We Part which was a very good record. Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus did not disappoint, broken up roughly into a more uptempo "rockin" side called Abattoir Blues (slaughterhouse blues) or the more subtle and "mellow" side called The Lyre Of The Orpheus, it was even on many critics year end best of lists who seem to take Nick for granted in my opinion.
Using the London Community Gospel Choir as backing chorus on songs like the blistering opening track Get Ready For Love or the name dropping There She Goes, My Beautiful World from Abattoir is a perfect match that really gives the songs they are used on a unique call and response vibe. Powerful stuff. My favorite song from the seond cd Lyre is Breathless with its out of tune sounding drunken flute opening to its beautiful acoustic pastoral like backing track and a great vocal from Nick.

Nick makes music that isn't based on fads or trends and he doesn't make records that bear the mark of a certain age either with the playing or the production style. I have read that he admires people like Leonard Cohen and Paul Simon because they are arists first whose past work hasn't dated. Although some of Leonard's eighties stuff might have! Decades from now you could play this recording which would sound fresh and yes it would still sound timeless.

Buy it here.