AnyBlogDotCom: Nick Cave album by album

Fascinating artist.

Wikipedia:

Nicholas Edward Cave AO (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian singer, songwriter, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Cave's music is generally characterised by emotional intensity, a wide variety of influences and lyrical obsessions with death, religion, love and violence.^[2]

Born and raised in rural Victoria, Cave studied art in Melbourne before fronting The Birthday Party, one of the city's leading post-punk bands, in the late 1970s. They relocated to London in 1980, but, disillusioned by life there, evolved towards a darker, more challenging sound that helped inspire gothic rock, and acquired a reputation as "the most violent live band in the world".^[3] Cave became recognised for his confrontational performances, his shock of black hair and pale, emaciated look. The band broke up soon after moving to Berlin in 1982, and Cave formed Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds the year after, later described as one of rock's "most redoubtable, enduring" bands.^[4] Much of their early material is set in a mythic American Deep South, drawing on spirituals and Delta blues, while Cave's preoccupation with Old Testament notions of good versus evil culminated in what has been called his signature song, "The Mercy Seat" (1988), and in his debut novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel (1989). Also in 1988, he appeared in Ghosts... of the Civil Dead, an Australian prison film which he co-wrote and scored.

The 1990s saw Cave move between São Paulo and England, and find inspiration in the New Testament. He went on to achieve mainstream success with quieter, piano-driven ballads, notably the Kylie Minogue duet "Where the Wild Roses Grow" (1996), and "Into My Arms" (1997). Turning increasingly to film in the 2000s, Cave wrote the Australian Western The Proposition (2005), composing its soundtrack with frequent collaborator Warren Ellis. The pair's film score credits include The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Road (2009) and Lawless (2012), and their garage rock side project Grinderman has released two LPs since 2006. In 2009, he released his second novel The Death of Bunny Munro, and starred in the semi-fictional "day in the life" film 20,000 Days on Earth (2014). His more recent musical work features ambient and electronic elements, as well as increasingly abstract lyrics, informed in part by grief over his son Arthur's 2015 death, which is explored in the documentary One More Time with Feeling (2016) and the Bad Seeds' 17th and latest LP, Ghosteen (2019).

Cave maintains The Red Hand Files, a newsletter he uses to respond to questions from fans. His work is the subject of academic study, and his songs have been covered by a wide range of artists, including Johnny Cash ("The Mercy Seat"), Metallica ("Loverman") and Snoop Dogg ("Red Right Hand"). He was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2007,^[5] and named an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2017. In 2020, Nick Cave launched Cave Things, a store that sells things conceived, sourced, shaped and designed by Nick Cave.

AllMusic:

Since the late '70s, Australian singer and songwriter Nick Cave has proved to be one of the most enduring talents to emerge from the post-punk era. In addition to being a remarkably consistent recording artist, his songs have been covered by everyone from Josh Groban, PJ Harvey, and Johnny Cash to Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, and Chelsea Wolfe, to name a few. However, his often dramatic, romantic, and/or harrowing tomes sound best on his own recordings. Accompanied by his ubiquitous backing band the Bad Seeds, Cave's style is inimitable as it ranges across a spectrum that includes noisy, clattering, but extremely musical rock -- equal parts mutant rockabilly, garage, indie, post-punk, and cabaret -- as well as striking romantic balladry and broken blues, sometimes all on the same recording (1986's Your Funeral, My Trial). Other early albums, in particular 1985's The Firstborn Is Dead, melded John Lee Hooker-esque stomp blues to unhinged, menacing post-punk. Later dates, including 1990's The Good Son, 1996's Murder Ballads, and 2013's Push the Sky Away tempered his ferocity in favor of moody soundscapes for his bent yet resonant storytelling. Still others, including 1997's The Boatman's Call, found him focusing his considerable talent on love songs. And 2019's Ghosteen was a minimalist but emotionally devastating meditation on grief and loss. Cave and his longtime colleague Warren Ellis (musical director the Bad Seeds) are also award-winning film composers with more than a dozen scores to their credit, and collaborated on 2021's sparse and atmospheric studio album Carnage.

The Bad Seeds

Wikipedia:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian rock band formed in 1983 by vocalist Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey and guitarist-vocalist Blixa Bargeld. The band has featured international personnel throughout its career and presently consists of Cave, violinist and multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn P. Casey (all from Australia), guitarist George Vjestica (United Kingdom), keyboardist/percussionist Toby Dammit (United States) and drummers Thomas Wydler (Switzerland) and Jim Sclavunos (United States). Described as "one of the most original and celebrated bands of the post-punk and alternative rock eras in the '80s and onward",^[1] they have released seventeen studio albums and completed numerous international tours.

The band was founded following the demise of Cave and Harvey's former group the Birthday Party, the members of which met at a boarding school in Melbourne.^[6] Throughout the 1980s, beginning with their debut LP From Her to Eternity (1984), the band drew largely on post-punk, blues and gothic rock, and brought in musicians such as Blixa Bargeld, Barry Adamson and Kid Congo Powers. The band later softened their sound and incorporated other influences on albums such as The Good Son (1990) and The Boatman's Call (1997). Following Harvey's departure in 2009,^[7] the band broadened their sound further to include electronic and ambient styles, which feature prominently on the trilogy of albums Push the Sky Away (2013), Skeleton Tree (2016) and Ghosteen (2019).

The Birthday Party

AllMusic:

The Birthday Party were one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s, creating bleak and noisy soundscapes that provided the perfect setting for vocalist Nick Cave's difficult, disturbing stories of religion, violence, and perversity. Under the direction of Cave and guitarist Rowland S. Howard, the band tore through reams of blues and rockabilly licks, spitting out hellacious feedback and noise at an unrelenting pace. As the Birthday Party's career progressed, Cave's vision got darker and the band's songs alternated between dirges to blistering sonic assaults.

Wikipedia:

The Birthday Party (originally known as The Boys Next Door) were an Australian post-punk band, active from 1978 to 1983. Despite limited commercial success, The Birthday Party's influence has been far-reaching, and they have been called "one of the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s."^[4] The group's "bleak and noisy soundscapes," which drew irreverently on blues, free jazz, and rockabilly, provided the setting for vocalist Nick Cave's disturbing tales of violence and perversion.^[4]^[5]^[6] Their music has been described by critic Simon Reynolds as gothic, and their single "Release the Bats" was particularly influential on the emerging gothic scene.^[5]

In 1980, The Birthday Party moved from Melbourne to London, where they were championed by broadcaster John Peel. Disillusioned by their stay in London, the band's sound and live shows became increasingly violent. They broke up soon after relocating to West Berlin in 1982. The creative core of The Birthday Party – singer and songwriter Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mick Harvey, and singer, songwriter and guitarist Rowland S. Howard – later went on to acclaimed careers.

Albums

Door, Door (The Boys Next Door) (1979)

Pleasant RnB infused pop with a tinge of pop. Sounds like an acceptable local band. Nothing here really stands out, but it's listenable, melodic and attractive, with enough energy to keep it lively.

Released	June 1979
Recorded	June 1978 Side A recorded at Alan Eaton Studios (Melbourne) January 1979 Side B produced at Richmond Recorders
Genre	Post-punk
Length	31:56
Label	Mushroom Records
Producer	The Boys Next Door

"The Nightwatchman" – 2:07
"Brave Exhibitions" – 2:27
"Friends of my World" – 2:46
"The Voice" – 3:55
"Roman Roman" – 1:35
"Somebody's Watching" – 2:39
"After a Fashion" – 4:36
"Dive Position" – 2:47
"I Mistake Myself" – 4:31
"Shivers" – 4:34

All songs credited to The Boys Next Door.

Nick Cave - vocals
Mick Harvey - guitar (1-7), piano (8-10)
Rowland S. Howard - guitar (7-10)
Tracy Pew - bass guitar
Phill Calvert - drums

Wikipedia
AllMusic:
Score: 3 1/2

The Birthday Party (The Boys Next Door) (1980)

A transitional album, which was released by The Boys Next Door as they became The Birthday Party. Post punk. Jangly guitars. Industrial noises. Screeching. Some tub thumping. Interesting, though not fully realised. Early Eighties sound.

Released	November 1980
Recorded	July 1979, January–February 1980
Studio	Richmond Recorders, Melbourne
Genre	Post-punk
Length	32:00
Label	Missing Link Records^[1] CBS Records 4AD
Producer	The Boys Next Door, Tony Cohen, Keith Glass

All tracks are written by Nick Cave, unless otherwise noted.

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Mr. Clarinet"		3:43
2.	"Hats on Wrong"		2:47
3.	"The Hair Shirt"		4:04
4.	"Guilt Parade"	Rowland S. Howard	2:46
5.	"Riddle House"	Rowland S. Howard	2:47
6.	"The Friend Catcher"		4:21
7.	"Waving My Arms"		2:17
8.	"The Red Clock"	Rowland S. Howard	2:49
9.	"Cat Man"	Gene Vincent, Bill "Tex" Davis	2:30
10.	"Happy Birthday"	Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard, Mick Harvey