Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: No More Shall We Part

BY CAMERON LEADER-PICONE

Reigning king of gloom Nick Cave underwent a renaissance with his last album, 1997's The Boatman's Call. The album dealt with themes of romantic disillusionment and faith with a startling emotional intensity and depth. Most would not have expected such sensitivity from an artist whose past work included singing for goth rockers the Birthday Party and whose last album, Murder Ballads, took the violence and profanity of his past work to its logical extreme.

Cave's new release, No More Shall We Part, attempts to reconcile the introspection of his last album with the musical inventiveness of his past efforts. The album features several piano-based tracks ("And No More Shall We Part," "God is in the House") that would have fit right into The Boatman's Call, but overall, backing band the Bad Seeds have been allowed to take the brooding lyrics and augment them with a satisfyingly rich sound palette. Mick Harvey and Warren Ellis deliver perfect work, both in their orchestration of the strings and through their respective playing on guitar and violin, which lends the album a distinctive and inventive sound. Thanks to the Bad Seeds, the album is able to combine the meditative and personal lyrics of The Boatman's Call with a revived musical creativity.

The songs all work as individual stories, as no track is less than four minutes long and most are over six. Cave weaves tapestries of spiritual and sexual longing that can be alternately terrifying and seductive. The lyrics stumble in places (most noticeably on "God is in the House"), but work because Cave convinces the listener through his accomplished vocals that he has lived through the emotion conveyed on the album.

There are standout tracks throughout, but special note must be made of "As I Sat Sadly by Her Side," the opening track, which thematically foreshadows the album as a whole with its cinematic imagery of two lovers speaking. Also memorable are the haunting "Hallelujah," the beautiful ballads "Love Letter" and "Gates to the Garden," and the frightening "Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow." The album doesn't cover much new territory for Cave; rather, it blends several styles he has previously used into a brilliant consolidation of his musical legacy. (Reprise)

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