Product Description

'Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus' is the thirteenth studio album from Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds and their first tonot feature guitarist Blixa Bargeld. Recorded by Nick Launay in Paris, the album sees Cave deliver his trademark mix ofpoetic lyrics and dark songwriting. The single 'Nature Boy'is also included.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Get Ready For Love
2. Cannibals Hymn
3. Hiding All Away
4. Messiah Ward
5. There She Goes, My Beautiful World
6. Nature Boy
7. Abattoir Blues
8. Let The Bells Ring
9. The Fable of the Brown Ape

Disc 2:

1. The Lyre of Orpheus
2. Breathless
3. Babe You Turn Me On
4. Easy Money
5. Supernaturally
6. Spell
7. Carry Me
8. O Children

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4449 in Music
• Released on: 2004-09-20
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
A double-album is a risky undertaking for most artists, but Nick Cave has never been one to shrink away from risks--after all, Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus has to be less left-field than a collection of spoken-word pieces, or even an album devoted to murder ballads. And for this double-CD set, separate but equal seems the rule: both Abattoir Blues and The Lyre of Orpheus can easily exist as stand-alone albums, but combined their potency is even stronger. Thematically, they have as much in common with each other as all of Cave's works. That is, they're dark, gothically sinister, hopelessly romantic and characterised by faultless musicianship (hats off, once again, to the Bad Seeds there). But where the thoughtful pace of The Lyre of Orpheus seems to be the logical following to Cave's more recent work (e.g. The Boatman's Call), Abattoir Blues actually harkens back to the more fiery sound of Cave's earlier album (indeed, its first track the rocking "Get Ready for Love", could have come off of Let Love In). Once again, Nick Cave aims high, and unerringly hits the mark. --Robert Burrow

Album Description
The latest Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds studio album, the double-CD set entitled Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, will be the 13th studio album and the follow-up to 2003's Nocturama. Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus was Recorded by Nick Launay at Studio Ferber in Paris in Spring 2004 by the Bad Seeds line-up of Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Thomas Wydler, Martyn Casey, Conway Savage, Jim Sclavunos, Warren Ellis and James Johnston and features the London Community Gospell Choir. The CD comes with the special packaging of a cloth-bound rigid slipcase.

Customer Reviews

utter drivel
I have tried to like this album, but I can't, although I love most of Nick Cave's work. I can just about listen to 'Abattoir Blues', skipping a number of tracks; 'Lyre of Orpheus' is beyond awful. The elephant in the room, which nobody is mentioning, is religion. This is Cave's most orthodox Christian album & it's the worse for it. The lyrics are painfully bland & Cave's voice is weak & drowned out by that infernal gospel choir. He has dealt with religion in many, many songs before, but in an interesting, sideways-slanted way. The head-on approach doesn't suit him, he is effectively writing hymns, & not particularly good hymns. Some of the songs - 'Let The Bells Ring', with its chorus that sounds like an ad for a well-known soft drink, 'The Fable of the Brown Ape' &, yes, 'Get Ready For Love' - are simply dire. I curl up with embarrassment listening to them. There are a few decent songs, but nothing to compare with his best. Happily, he seems to have got over this dreary patch & is back on song again with 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!'. I hope this album was just an aberration because on a good day he can wipe the floor with any singer going.

Truely great rock music!
The view that any future for rock died with Hendrix, Morrison, Lennon or whoever cannot be sustained in the face of the work of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Here you have a unique combination of the greatest song writer with the finest and most innovative musicians yet to have emerged in rock music The result is a series of albums that expand the genre with an emotional power and lyricism that has rarely if ever been approached by any of the other major bands or writers.

This album brings together the two essential styles of modern music in the separate disks of a double album where it is very hard to listen to one without needing to go directly to the other. The softer folk referenced songs on The Lyre of Orpheus and the uninhibited explosive rock of Abattoir Blues come together to give that sense of fulfilment that is only conveyed by great art.

This is a album that can release you, like all of NC&TBS's it speaks to the listener in terms that can only be described as joyful whilst it is also provocative, challenging us to look again at ourselves and our take on the world. It contains 17 songs many of which rank amounst the finest yet put down by the band including: Supernaturally, Nature Boy, The Lyre of Orpheus, There She Goes My Beautiful World, Get ready For Love and let the Bells Ring - but there isn't a bad track on the album and picking out individual songs risks dimishing the strength of the work taken as a whole, and what a simply outstandingly creative and enriching piece of work this is.

The great test of any work of art is in its ability to communicate new understanding whilst never allowing the receiver to tire, to fulfill this it needs depth, humour and sympathy and this album is generous on all these counts. Ranking at least equal with the No More Shall we Part, Nocturama, The Boatmans Call and Let Love In, the album is certain to remain an absolute must have for anyone interested in what still remains a very rare thing, truely great rock music!

A sprawling, impressive work

The hard rock blast of Get Ready For Love with its tempo variation opens Abbatoir Blues. Cannibal's Hymn is a slow but intense rock ballad and is followed by the somewhat messy but equally powerful Hiding All Away. The music but not the lyrics, lightens up with the subdued love song Messiah Ward. There She Goes My Beautiful World with its disturbing imagery and edgy rhythmic patterns is a tour de force.

Nature Boy, a driving rock song with a beautiful melody and poetic lyrics, is one of the highlights. The mid-tempo track Let The Bells Ring is another track with a nervous beat and a lovely chorus. This CD concludes with Fable Of The Brown Ape, a slow number with a complex arrangement. Abattoir Blues contains mostly harder rock songs that sound messy at first listen but make sense after repeated spins. Perhaps it could be considered as Nick Cave's very own Exile On Main Street.

More melodious, the Orpheus CD has a gentler overall sound and more immediately memorable compositions. The title track is a long story song in a bluesy vein. It is followed by the tuneful Breathless, an exquisitely beautiful love song which is one of my favourites. The atmospheric Babe You Turn Me On is another tender ballad with a gorgeous melody. After the meandering interlude of Easy Money comes the uptempo rock of Supernaturally that becomes quite rousing in the chorus.

The subdued Spell has a dreamy quality as has the next one, Carry Me, with its moving spiritual undertone. The Orpheus CD concludes with O Children, a ruminative song with a gospel feel. This double album is an impressive showcase of Cave's multifaceted talents. Rock fans will prefer Abattoir Blues but I find the contemplative Orpheus more appealing. More exact rating: Four and a half stars.