CD Odyssey Disc 13: Nick Cave

It has been a few days without an entry. Part of this was a weekend where I didn't get any painting done, and part was that the album I had in my car held my interest for quite a while.

Disc 13 is...The Boatman's Call

Artist: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Year of Release: 1997

How I Came To Know It: Sheila had heard about Nick Cave - maybe on line even (yikes!) and inquired at Ditch Records about which album to get. "The Boatman's Call" was their recommendation after getting a good sense of what kind of music we like. Ditch Records rocks!

How It Stacks Up: I am in the middle of drilling through the Nick Cave collection, but currently only have 6 albums. I put The Boatman's Call tied for first among those 6.

Rating: 4 stars. I struggled here. This album is as close to 5 stars as you can get without getting 5 stars. I am a hard marker. I'm going to tag it with both, since I've changed my mind back and forth a hundred times. Whatever the arbitrary tag - it is an awesome record.

Nick Cave is like the Australian Leonard Cohen. He has been around in this incarnation since 1984 with very little love in terms of charting. No #1 records that I could find. Another reason to like him.

The Boatman's Call has a sound that is both ambient and comforting - loving and sinister. I think it represents Nick Cave at his best.

Cave has a voice like Cohen - probably better. It is kind of lascivious and deep at the same time. As my friend Steve would say, he is an enigma wrapped in a fortune cookie.

The opening track "Into My Arms" is hands down a 5 star song. Check out this opening:

I don't believe in an interventionist God
But darling, I know that you do
But if I did, I would kneel down and ask him
Not to intervene when it came to you.
Not to touch a hair on your head
Leave you as you are
If he felt he had to direct you
Direct you into my arms

Awesome.

The only song on this album that is remotely average is "black hair" which goes on and on with a poetic device that repeats how the object of the singer's affection has black hair. Even this song is redeemed with the plaintiff ending, as we learn tomorrow she is leaving...

Great pairings on this album would include "(are you) the one that I've been waiting for?" which I'd pair on a best of with BOC's "You're not the one I was looking for (but you're the one for me)" and "Idiot Prayer" which goes with both Dylan's "Idiot Wind" and Alice Cooper's "Stolen Prayer". Also "People Just Ain't No Good" with Lyle Lovett's "Creeps Like Me" Holy before and after extravaganza - spin that wheel, Vanna! Give me an "N"!

Anyway, what I'm saying is in the world of music, "The Boatman's Call" is money. Or as Vanna would say "Big Money". You clap Vanna - you tell the world.

Best tracks: Into my arms, lime-tree arbour, (are you) the one I've been waiting for?, pretty much the rest of them.