In some ways, Murder Ballads is the record Nick Cave was waiting to make for his entire career. Death and violence have always haunted his music, even when he wasn't explicitly singing about the subject. On Murder Ballads, he sings about nothing but death in the most gruesome, shocking fashion. Divided between originals and covers, the record is awash in both morbid humor and sobering horror, as the Bad Seeds provide an appropriate backdrop for the carnage, alternating between lues, country, and lounge-jazz. Opening the affair is "Song for Joy," a tale from a father who has witnessed his family's death at the hands of serial killer. It is the most disturbing number on the record, lacking any of the gallows humor that balances out the other songs. Cave's duets with Kylie Minogue ("Where the Wild Roses Grow") and PJ Harvey ("Henry Lee") are intriguing, but the true tours de force of the album are "Stagger Lee" and "O'Malley's Bar." Working from an obscure, vulgar variation on "Stagger Lee," Cave increases the sordidness of the song, making Stagger an utterly irredeemable character. The original "O'Malley's Bar" is even stronger, as he spins a bizarrely funny epic of one man's slaughter of an entire bar. During "O'Malley's Bar," Cave and the Bad Seeds are at the height of their powers and the performances rank among the best they have ever recorded.
Tower Records.... as lame as it sounds.... it was more than a little important to me in the mid-1990's when I lived in two Midwest towns that were lucky enough to have location... We, meaning the gang, when there was one, used to randumbly go there and poke around late in the evening. The night I purchased my first Nick Cave album must have been in... wait...allmusic.com... well I am thinking ...
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Tower Records.... as lame as it sounds.... it was more than a little important to me in the mid-1990's when I lived in two Midwest towns that were lucky enough to have location... We, meaning the gang, when there was one, used to randumbly go there and poke around late in the evening. The night I purchased my first Nick Cave album must have been in... wait...allmusic.com... well I am thinking ...
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My D-I-Y Widget: a different song everyday.Here's a little ballad to help you get over the hump.*Warning:* _Explicit Badassitude._ This song is sung blue, and not in a Neil Diamond sort of way. Sensitive listeners beware._song deleted_
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MUSIC NEWS - The new novel from rocker Nick Cave, The Death of Bunny Munro, will be out on September 1, 2009 (published Faber & Faber). The Death of Bunny Munro is a furious, funny, disturbing account of a traveling salesman’s last days on earth. As the lead singer of the Birthday Party, the Bad Seeds, and Grinderman, Nick Cave has been performing music for more than thirty years.
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 "Murder Ballads")
