Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: NocturamaNocturama (2003)
Anti- Records

Reviewer Rating: 2.5

User Rating:

Contributed by: maverickScott
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on February 14th 2003I'll be frank - while I do know who Nick Cave is, and how important some people think he is, I personally had never consciously listened to any of his records before "Nocturama." It's not like I purposely avoided Mr. Cave, I just never seemed to cross paths with his music. After this record, I k.

I'll be frank - while I do know who Nick Cave is, and how important some people think he is, I personally had never consciously listened to any of his records before "Nocturama." It's not like I purposely avoided Mr. Cave, I just never seemed to cross paths with his music.

After this record, I kind of wish that I would have before now.

But that's not to say that this album is amazing; in fact it's rather dull mediocre at points. But I can definitely hear the genius contained within these 10 songs that is probably more heavily present on his past releases. "Nocturama" seems to be quite the departure from his past work [according to one of my roommates who is a huge Nick Cave fan, who declared to me "this is crap!" after I let him borrow the disc]. The majority of the songs tend to slip by via the use of Cave's rumbling baritone voice and ample use of folk instrumentation. It's great for background music as you lie in bed at night, but it rarely gets your blood pumping.

Only twice does the album really let loose. The first sign of life on the disc is track 6, "Still In Love." The band finally opens up and kicks in some distortion as Cave sings to a lost love.

As an aside, it's of interest to note that a hefty chunk of these songs are about love, or more aptly about love lost. Funny how if a group of 20-somethings sing about their ex-girlfriend we mock them, but here is a grown man approaching old age bellowing out his pain and we applaud him for his artistic merit.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the rock. The last track of the album, "Babe, I'm On Fire," runs over 14 minutes, and the song is more intense musically and lyrically than anything else on the album. Cave sings virtually the whole time, using innovative rhyme schemes that I never would have even thought of. Apparently this song was only rehearsed once by the band before putting it to tape, and the recording really captures the free nature of it, with fuzzy bass and pounding organs driving the track.

So overall, the album is somewhat of a dud, but there are some gems on here, even in the "unplugged" sense - "Rock Of Gibralter" is a terrific love song, and the rest of the material isn't bad, per se - it just isn't what I've been led to believe is par for Nick Cave.

MP3
Bring It On

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (February 20, 2003)

his old stuff kicks, this isn't bad either.
wyzo

Anonymous (February 17, 2003)

i've always thought hellcat and anti were pretty good. epitaph the main label is the only part i haven't been impressed with.

Anonymous (February 17, 2003)

The Simpsons had a pretty dissapointing 300th episode... I mean, it was better than anything else on TV, but still... Tony Hawk and Blink 182? Lame... This score is for the Simpsons as a series.

waste_elite (February 17, 2003)

haha

simpsons

evildeadalive (February 17, 2003)

"How do you spell AC/DC?"
"A, C, D, C."
"Wrong, you forgot the lightning bolt."

evilmidget2 (February 17, 2003)

haha, i like how "unconcerned" made fun of johnny cash gonna be dying soon. maybe if johnny cash didnt team up with rick rubin, he wouldnt be going downhill so much. at least it phil spector isnt producing shit for him. johnny would shit himself to death when spector unloads on dee dee ramone. did that even make sense? oh shit, i just remembered dee dee ramone is dead. the 10 is for blunts you'd have to smoke to listen to everything rick rubin has produced w/o killing yourself. or the 10 is for dozens of lines of coke dee dee did to die.

evilmidget2 (February 17, 2003)

the d4 are also from australia, and theyre good. oh wait, theyre from new zealand. well, australia and new zealand are totally gay besides nick cave and the d4. and ac/dc still sucks. the "8" is for inches of penis in scott's rectum.

evilmidget2 (February 17, 2003)

nick cave is the shit, but this album's kinda weak. the 5 is for scott's penis in centimeters.

unconcerned (February 17, 2003)

It isn't that I dislike things that are older than me I just HATE how people automatically like certain things that they couldn't have gotten into by any form of pop culture except to show off their scene points and by listening to the most challenging music makes you the one with the supposed best taste. I realize that didn't come out right but you have to fucking see it.

People like things that they don't really like to fit in with everyone else who doesn't really like it b/c they are just following a trend. At least with people who are 30 they can have experienced this music firsthand when it was at it's height and when you could see nick cave play in the birthday party when he was at least tolerable. Those are the people who may have an excuse for listening to this garbage. Not you teen agers who are liking it for reasons unimaginable.

I think Anti- only releases albums as a joke. They put out the most ridiculous shit that is absolute garbage just to see if the kids will buy it and guess what they are still getting your money. Epitaph is just another major with another name. If you throw enough shit at the wall something is bound to stick right? Well that is the major label mentality and I don't see anything different coming from epitaph and crew. They release turd after turd and you fucking numb nuts lick their asses time and time again.

I don't fault anyone for being capitalistic and I definitely will not fault anyone for getting ahead of the game. Hell I salute mr Brett for getting ahead and exploiting the scene as he does, but for you not to see it is idiocy. Same business practices as any major label but with just a prettier face.

Anonymous (February 17, 2003)

To the guy below me:

Disregarding artists because they are older than you or not in the "punk" category is not "punk", just damned stupid. That said, Cash is a genius compared to this guy.

unconcerned (February 17, 2003)

Yes Nick Cave does have a lot in common with Cash, Haggard, and Waits.... he is just as unlistenable and as horrible as the rest

the only mediocre thing he has ever done was the birthday party's hee haw album and that was barely tolerable

I hate how scene it is to like stuff that was out before you were born and stuff that you really can't stomach to listen to until you've seemingly tricked your senses into accepting the "challenging" (as you call it)... it sure is fucking challenging... if I was forced to listen to this garbage I would throw myself out a fucking window...

I was happy when they misdiagnosed Johnny Cash and will have a fucking party when the damned old fool dies... you are never too young to die and that man has just been releasing shit for way too long... someone put him out of his misery... his god will save him i am sure of it

Anonymous (February 17, 2003)

Your life is not complete until you own every single Bad Seeds and Birthday Party record. Nocturama is far from Nick's best - that would be The Boatman's Call or Henry's Dream - but it's still absolutely essential listening. The progression from his old testament chaotic bluster (see the Mutiny EP and the Bad Seeds' early work) to the minimalist piano-and-voice songs of No More Shall We Part is quite staggering.

Nick is God. God is Nick. Most Australians suck balls. Nick is the honourable exception. Frenzal Rhomb and The Living End are cool too, but apart from that select group Australia would do the world a favour by not existing.

Anonymous (February 16, 2003)

There is NOTHING wrong with singing about girls, it's just if it's done well and with originality, I think that was the problem all along. New Found Glory, Blink 182, Simple Plan etc. etc. just are shitty music. They have no talent, no originality, they are uninteresting, boring, generic and annoying. People like Nick Cave and many others HAVE great voices, the music is usually exciting, and it is interesting, there are actually intelligent lyrics. It isn't generic.....and when it is, it sucks.

Anonymous (February 16, 2003)

Funny how if a group of 20-somethings sing about their ex-girlfriend we mock them, but here is a grown man approaching old age bellowing out his pain and we applaud him for his artistic merit.

20 year olds should be out enjoying life not bitching. When an older man poors out his heart it is a chalenge people arounf that age arent as open with their feelings.

Anonymous (February 16, 2003)

Pretty good, although this isn't his best. I like Nick Cave, but prefer the Birthday Party.

Anonymous (February 15, 2003)

This is a good album, though I don't like it as much as the last two.

I do love Nick Cave. As he's aged, his albums have grown to confont with the big things in life - life and death, love, redemption, emptiness, darkness, God, good, evil, sadness and romance. His albums carry a feeling of depth.

He does have a lot in common with Cash, Haggard, or Waits...and what they have over the pop-punk and emo bands we all like to joke about isn't age - it's genuine emotional depth.

It's interesting to listen to the albums he's put out over the years. Going from the angry, apocalyptic, chaotic sounds of the Birthday Party to this...

This album is the kind of music you play when you're feeling reflective and introspective, not when you want to party or rock out.

Anonymous (February 14, 2003)

yeah I agree with the person below me. People like Cave, Cash, Waits and Haggard have been through it all, and so they really give the impression they KNOW about love. Bands like NFG and whatnot singing about some girl they have a crush on is something totally different.

jonbonbandersnatch (February 14, 2003)

"As an aside, it's of interest to note that a hefty chunk of these songs are about love, or more aptly about love lost. Funny how if a group of 20-somethings sing about their ex-girlfriend we mock them, but here is a grown man approaching old age bellowing out his pain and we applaud him for his artistic merit."

i do believe there is a qualitative difference between nick cave songs and the songs of the 20 somethings that you mention. i cant deny that there aren't any good young love song writers around, but the majority of them are rather predictable and shouldn't be compared as a whole to an estsablished creative talent like nick cave.

Anonymous (February 14, 2003)

The Mercy Seat is one of the coolest songs ever.

Anonymous (February 14, 2003)

This definitely isn't his best, but it is, as always, good.

sickboi (February 14, 2003)

I've always thought of Nick in an aspect of kinda a modern Johnny Cash.