Product Description

Given Nick Cave's history of great songs but uneven albums,THE BEST OF NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS truly lives up to itsname, condensing his most intriguing songs into one excellent collection. Though it lacks a chronological sequence, theseemingly random track listing works surprisingly well, from the opening Van Morrison-gone-bad raucousness of "Deanna" to the final chaotic blast of "From Her to Eternity".
Though the compilation highlights Cave's penchant for morbid narratives, it also includes disarmingly sincere ballads like"Into My Arms", "Are You the One That I've Been Waiting For?", and "Straight to You", with the Bad Seeds providing unusually subtle backing. Cave's trademark dark theatricality isstill at the fore, however, on bleak yet driving songs suchas "The Mercy Seat", "Tupelo", "Do You Love Me?", and, of course, the sinister classic "Red Right Hand".

Track Listing

1. Deanna
2. Red Right Hand
3. Straight To You
4. Tupelo
5. Nobody's Baby Now
6. Stranger Than Kindness
7. Into My Arms
8. Are You The One I've Been Waiting For
9. Carny
10. Do You Love Me
11. Mercy Seat
12. Henry Lee
13. Weeping Song
14. Ship Song
15. Where The Wild Roses Grow
16. From Here To Eternity

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5082 in Music
• Released on: 1998-05-11
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
This culling of the "best" cuts from the Bad Seeds' songbook avoids the pratfalls of many best-of compilations. First off, the songs aren't arranged chronologically, but instead for effect, ravelling new with old, weepy ballads with adrenaline-pumped rockers. In addition, there aren't any rare live tracks, alternative takes, remixes, acoustic versions, or B-sides that clutter other compilations. What you get is pure Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in all their gloomy glory. Things get off with a bang with the rollicking "Deanna" and the carnivalesque "Red Right Hand" that display Nick Cave's literary and narrative talent. After the preacherman blues stomp of the excellent track "Tupelo", the disc slides into a series of ballads which highlight his baritone croon. "(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?" captures Cave in a, gasp, sentimental and lovely mood. The disc closes with "From Here to Eternity", and the band hits the steamroller tempo with apocalyptic might. The Best Of... is a wonderful introduction to Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, but even weathered purists will enjoy the juxtaposed presentation of these songs. --Tod Nelson

Customer Reviews

The best of the baddest (9/10)
I am no Nick Cave afficianado but it seems the man is making a real come-back into the critical consciousness with his most recent album, Dig!!! Lazurus Dig!!! Of course, critical trends mean almost nothing, and if this excellent compliation tells us anything, it's that Cave has been writing strange and powerful music for three decades. What is nice about this Best Of is that there is no contemporaneous filler - no bonus tracks or live outtakes - used to market the CD. The selection - though always debateable on artists who have had such a rich discography - seems representative (if not totally comprehensive) of their best work.

While Cave and the Bad Seeds have continued to release bold and challenging music in the new millennium, this compilation is a great introduction to their work before. It encompasses their raw, earlier punk-flavoured work ('Deanna'), through some of their expansive and experimental pieces ('The Carny') and generous helpings of Cave's doom-laden balladry ('Into My Arms', 'Nobody's Baby Now'). It shows both Cave's comic side, his romantic persona and the gothic-cinematic melodrama of tracks from the fantastic 'Let Love In' (although sadly that album's wonderful title track is not included). A latter day Leonard Cohen, Cave is a poet with an irreverent punk spirit - a unique artist when so much modern music lacks true identity and authenticity.

A terrific selection of songs from the great aussie!
1. Deanna 9/10 - Closest to a Birthday Party song, Nick sneers the bizarre lyrics on top of the fast rythms.
2. Red Right Hand 10/10 Classic, slow, ominous tale of deals with Satan.
3. Straight To You 10/10 Only the greatest love song written by Cave (possibly ever!)
4. Tupelo 9/10 Apocalyptic, rumbling hungry like the beast.
5. Nobody's Baby Now 7/10 Over-reliance on religious lyrics but good nonetheless.
6. Stranger Than Kindness 8/10 Ethereal thrasher later inverted for Murder Ballads.
7. Into My Arms 10/10 Slow, simple, but deeply emotional and beautiful.
8. Are You The One I've Been Waiting For 9/10 Haunting, melodic heartfelt love song
9. Carny 10/10 One of the creepiest songs ever, do not listen to in the dark.
10. Do You Love Me 8/10 Aggressive, brutal love song.
11. Mercy Seat 11/10 One of the greatest songs ever, undescribable.
12. Henry Lee 8/10 Dark and affecting tale of murder with PJ Harvey.
13. Weeping Song 8/10 Mellow, ethereal and operatic.
14. Ship Song 9/10 Also mellow etheral and operatic, but more.
15. Where The Wild Roses Grow 10/10 Very dark, but very beautiful fable of murderous desire with Kylie Minogue.
16. From Here To Eternity 8/10 Burning away the last remnants of the demonic power of the Birthday Party.

Brooding rock music features outstanding Kylie duet
Nick has clearly led a troubled life as his music is always of the brooding, melancholy kind. The obvious comparisons are with Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits, but some of Johnny Cash's darker music, especially the albums that he recorded with Rick Rubin towards the end of his life, also ventures into this territory. The difference being (apart from their musical styles) that the others cheered up some of the time - I don't think Nick recorded any cheerful music at all. While Nick built up a significant following for his albums, it is no surprise to find that his singles made only limited impact.

The real surprise is that Nick recorded a duet with Kylie (he should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky) about a death pact - Where the wild roses grow. It features Kylie singing in an almost whispery voice, very different from her usual style. If you regard Kylie as just a singer of lightweight pop music, this song will make you think again. I love the song but it doesn't sound like the type of song to be a hit. Nevertheless, it just missed the UK top ten in 1995, becoming Kylie's first UK hit of any size for over two years and Nick's biggest UK hit ever, by a considerable margin.

Nick made the UK top forty on one other occasion, when he recorded a duet with P J Harvey. This was with the song Henry Lee, a traditional folk song for which Nick wrote new backing music. Despite making the UK top forty, it spent just one week on the chart, as did all of Nick's other minor hits, some but not all of which are featured in this compilation. So the only real UK hit that Nick had was Where the wild roses grow.

Apart from the two duets, there are several other outstanding tracks here including The mercy seat (about a convict on death row), Tupelo (about a preacher c and the bible), The carny (about another of life's losers), Nobody's baby now (about Nick at a difficult time in life).

If you like brooding, melancholy rock music, you'll like this. Whether it is possible to enjoy it in the true sense of the word, I'm not sure - I always follow it by something that'll cheer me up, but there's no denying Nick's talent.