Review by David Niall Wilson

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS: NOCTURAMA - 2003 Mute Records

Okay, I'm old. I've been influenced by the vibrations in the airwaves of four decades, give or take a little. Suffice it to say, I'm not easily impressed. In the early years, I could be sucked in to a new artist, or new sound, but something as simple as a catchy riff, or a particularly prosaic bit of lyrical magic. Hell, if you go far enough back all it took was one of those pop refrains that sticks in your head like day-old bubble-gum on the bottom of your shoe and won't let go. Times have changed.

Now there has to be some substance to the work, an indication of artistry, or a gathering of incredible musical talent. In short, I ask a lot from any new music before it can be found worthy to part me from some of my hard-earned cash. I'll get to the point. Nick Cave, Australian artist of semi-macabre, moody rock, delivers.

Many of you will remember being drawn in by an earlier album by Nick and the Seeds, Murder Ballads, which is sort of a no-brainer must-hear classic for the combination horror fan music aficionado. While Murder Ballads was raw and rough, Nocturama takes the band's depth, and the lyrical complexity, to a new level.

The music itself is insidious. It is very simplistic, no fiery guitars or wild synthesized sound. You won't be hearing this at a Rave, for instance, but that is not where it's magic lies. It lies in the words. The lyrics, semi-repetitive in some places, eerie in their sense of timing, and the execution of each piece in its turn. Lines like "That idiot boy in the corner is speaking deviant truths . . ." and passages like "The cops are hanging around the house, The cars outside look like they've got the blues, The moon don't know if it's day or night, Everybody's creeping around with plastic covers on their shoes," stick with you. The songs flow, one to another, sometimes seeming to have a theme, as if sung to an absent lover, sometimes shifting gears and seeming to be sung to the victim of some horrible crime, or a long dead friend.

The instruments are violin, piano, guitar and organ. There is a concurrent sensation of symphonic sound and core-rock tradition. It is difficult to put in words an exact description, and for me, therein lies the magic. It is not a stereotypical pop rock plunge, or a dirge-like monotonous death-chant Goth sound, but something different. Dark enough to hold my interest, and yet, delivered with finesse and talent.

This CD features 10 Tracks: Wonderful Life / He Wants You / Right Out Of Your Hand / Bring It On / Dead Man in My Bed / Still In Love / There Is A Town / Rock of Gibraltar / She Passed By My Window / Babe, I'm On Fire. SPECIAL BONUS DVD - included with the limited edition (which was the only edition I found for sale) of a long, silly, bizarre video of the final song, Babe I'm On Fire.

Of those ten, the two that stuck with me hardest are Wonderful Life, which has amazing lyrics and a deeply warped quality running through both words and sound, and Rock of Gibraltar, which starts out to sound too traditional, and ends up hypnotic, with repetitive passages that echo in your head so long you are lost in the next track before they fade.

If you've never heard NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS, NOCTURAMA will be an amazing introduction, and may well draw you back across notes and years to buy their other work. If this happens, do yourself a favor and find a copy of Murder Ballads first.

5 PERPLEX SKULLS

This review copyright 2003 E.C.McMullen Jr.



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