Album Reviews

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus

2004-11-09

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are back with another disk....no wait, that's two disks!!! They are a set. The first is Abattoir, which is definitely the more rock 'n roll album of the two, and it really packs a punch! Unbridled gothic post-punk passion!!! At times I hear cynicism and joy radiating from the same songs, as he mocks the Western take on God and religion and yet yearns to discover God's will.

The second disk is a softer more carefully theatrical disc. It's also slightly more experimental in nature. The quest in Cave's songwriting seems to be "to explore his obsessions with religion, death, love, America and violence with a bizarre, sometimes self-consciously eclectic hybrid of blues, gospel, rock and arty post-punk"(allmusic.com). If you are familiar with Cave's work, you know that part already. The music making itself accentuates the passion and gritty focus of those obsessions.

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