Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.38 You Save: $3.60 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for The Boatman's Call
Free Music Review: It Changed My Life
Hit: 5 Stars
I could try to describe the power of this record, that would be in vain. Hadn't I listened to it endlessly I wouldn't have known of emotions tragic and dignified as those elicited by Mr. Cave. Tragedy, as of Greek lineage, of genius, of beauty, that is the stuff Mr. Cave has dwelled upon, successfully, fearlessly. The crossing of lines, the lack of fear, the total surrender - rare, my friends, rather rare and magnificent. There stands this man, bearing his soul, licking his wounds, dignified, so human, describing what is known to all of us who lie quiet in dispair. Only to wake up in disbelief of the interminable genius of life, that which Mr. Cave has had plenty of.Free Music Review: Cave's worst.
Hit: 1 Stars
Talk about the stark, minimal, heartfelt intensity of this album boggles my mind. 'The Boatman's Call' is a cheap, lazy mess. If you're going to cut down to bare essentials, you need to make sure they're, you know -- good. Nothing on TBC rises above mildly enjoyable so-so-ness. I have nothing against minimal songwriting in and of itself, and I can stomach a few love songs if the lyrics are interesting and aesthetically solid. But TBC doesn't make the cut.
First of all, the melodies are not so much minimal as they are simplistic. Simplistic and cheesy. Simplistic and cheesy are only forgivable if one is striving for quirk value, and it's evident that Nick Cave isn't. It's supposed to be heartfelt and sparse. Maybe it works for you, but not for me. Most of the melodies on this album can't possibly have taken more than a half-hour to compose, tweak, and lay down in their entirety. Whereas one senses the sheer time and energy that went into crafting a song such as, say, 'The Curse of Millhaven,' or 'Lay Me Low,' or 'Loverman' or 'Song of Joy' or any of numerous others, one can easily imagine throwing together a song like 'Into My Arms' in about an hour on a 4-track at home (then listening to it later, saying "Man, what was I thinking!" -- and *scrapping* the sorry thing.)
Additionally, the lyrics are awful. They are either overly sappy, head-scratchingly clumsy, or laugh-out-loud stupid. An occasional nice bit of descriptive phrasing will slip through the cracks (which I take for Cave's *actual* talent trying *desperately* to find a place to squeeze itself on to this record) -- but most of the lyrics are head-shakingly bad. Anyone who's listened to more than one Nick Cave album knows that, if nothing else, he can certainly pull some interesting lyrical gymnastics. They've always been a bit cumbersome, but are generally impressive, with an evident degree of time and thought put into them. On TBC, Cave seems to want to keep it simple. And while I know that musicians are going to try something different here and there, I simply don't think Cave writes "simple" lyrics that well. They just come out really awkward. The first line of the album is: "I don't believe in an interventionist God," sung in a very serious, romantic sort of way. It has to be the goofiest and most ineffectual opening to what is -- I *think* -- supposed to be a touching love song, that I have ever heard. Way too literal. If you're going to plop a word like "interventionist" into a love song, you have to be a great deal craftier about it than Cave is here.
But really, a line like that is nothing compared to much of the lame vocal filler to come. "Black hair, black hair. Beautiful black hair. Such black hair. Black hair, oh, it is black, yes, and it is beautiful. Very black hair. I like your black hair. Black hair. La la." Are there actually people who listen to that song (titled, appropriately, 'Black Hair') and feel -- touched or something? I've seen better song lyrics (and concepts) out of highschool freshman.
Simple, heartfelt intensity? If you say so. I say it's a clumsy failure, a bore to listen to, disappointing both musically and lyrically. The Boatman's Call is in fact, to date, the only album I've heard from Cave and his group that I would consider truly lousy. Better luck on 'No More Shall We Part.'
Free Music Review: Saint Nick
Hit: 4 Stars
Not what one would necessarily expect from Nick Cave, but an excellent album nonetheless. Most of the songs explore the wayward ways of love, in a frank confessional, honest, and direct manner, in the best tradition of Leonard Cohen. Particularly successful in this manner are Into My Arms, There Is A Kingdom, and (Are You) The One I've Been Waiting For? On a slightly more erotic and poetic note are Black Hair and Green Eyes. However, there are also a handful of songs on the album that go beyond this and wax on other issues of life, particularly religion and Cave's non-illusionatic view of human nature. People Ain't No Good is the best song in this manner, and perhaps the best on the album. Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere? and Idiot Prayer are two other examples. For the most part, the music on the album is laidback, and used as a solid, simple bed for Cave's intimate lyrics and vocal posturing. His low, "doomy and gloomy" singing voice on this album, coupled with the mostly piano-based musical backings, serve to make it almost seem as if Cave is sitting there at the piano in a church pulpit singing to you in the pew. For the Cave fan, this might be their view of Heaven.Free Music Review: One of the best albums I own
Hit: 5 Stars
You know, the more I listen to "The Boatman's Call," the more I'm convinced that it's not only one of the best albums I own, but may simply be one of the best albums, period. I'm not usually given to untempered praise, but Cave's intelligent, moody and melodic attempt to work through crises of love as crises of faith is a sobering and powerful reminder of just how far brilliant lyrics and great instrumental hooks will get you.What I like best about this album is that it thinks big. Cave is tangling here with fierce questions: religion, love, whether human nature is naughty or nice. Themes that would often elicit unreflective power ballads or incoherent and angsty slop from other artists pull instead from Cave some of his best pieces, balanced but yearning, often clever but never cute, and understated but overwhelming.
Cave makes his position clear in the album's first line; he's not religious, not a believer, but song after song seems to insinuate that he can't help seeing something of the divine and the devilish in the powerful emotion of love. "Into My Arms," "Are You the One that I've Been Waiting For?", and "The Brompton Oratory" all marry erotic or romantic longing with a sort of spiritual unrest in search of rest.
Other people have tried this mix, of course--Madonna's "Like a Prayer," for example or Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus"--but none have succeeded as Cave has. Even the very few less-than-perfect moments are never less than interesting. But really, almost all of the tracks are songs you'll have memorized before you know it, and they'll still surprise you every time you hear them. With warm and soft pianos, light guitars, occasional strings, and Cave's soothing bass, "The Boatman's Call" sounds like the kind of prophetic and life-changing stuff you'd hear in a dark lounge somewhere, the room dense with cigarette smoke and hazy with flourescent light, and the audience so quiet you could hear the parting of air as a pin drops.
Free Music Review: An album that's all heart
Hit: 5 Stars
If one thing can be said about Nick Cave's illustrious career, it's that there has always been a shroud around Cave the man. We know Cave the artist: obsessed with Southern Gothic culture and ritual, he has painted brilliant, inspired tales of love, hate, sin, etc. But stories only serve to filter emotions, not really expose them. Although his albums have ranged from incindiary to plaintif, never have they been stripped bare of pretense like this one is. Even "Let Love In" was delivered from a distance, with the traditional Cave swagger.Now comes "The Boatman's Call" and it is superb. The music is sparse (mainly piano/bass/violin/light percussion), which suits the lyrical mood. There are no rockers here -- so check out "Tender Prey" if you're looking for some Nick Cave that rocks.
The piano/melody on "Into My Arms" is simply heartbreaking and is the high point of the album, although "Far From Me" is a close second with a terrific bass/piano arrangement. "Green Eyes" use of the "c" word strays a bit from the overall tone of the album, but what else can you expect from ol' saint Nick?
A lot of old fans were disappointed by this effort, but I thought it took tremendous courage to do something different and genuine. This is as close as Nick Cave has let his fans come to knowing what's inside him, and as always, it is immensely intriguing.