Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus
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To call Nick Cave’s latest double opus a return-to-form would be a tad bit misleading. Cave has been making inspiring, seminal records for the majority of his solo career. Some may have been more ballad-heavy than others, but what carries each effort is his genuine passion and sincerity towards songwriting. He approaches it head-on like a painter who torches his canvas to make some grandiose statement. Very few artists can come across as compassionate preacher-man and a ravenous pyromaniac at the same time. Not only does Cave pull it off with pride on his latest double record release, he tears down anyone who dares to even come close, including masters like Leonard Cohen who released a more mediocre record on the same day. Abattoir Blues and The Lyre of Orpheus, even if they were packaged separately are simply some of the best examples of pure untarnished rock and roll you’ll hear this year (or any year for that matter).

The renowned apocalyptic prophet transforms into predatory gospel conductor with a little help from the London Community Gospel Choir, on a strong track like “There She Goes, My Beautiful World,” which has one of the most infectious choruses of Cave’s career and stands amongst his best work. He cites Nabakov, Dylan Thomas, and Marx amongst others and this magnificent composition brings to the forefront a stunning deconstruction of Greek mythology, religious hierarchy, and lust-filled nightmares. He has found a balance between sex, death, love, rock and roll, and spikes it with flamboyant literary references. The heavier of the two albums, Abattoir Blues, sounds like a welcoming celebration of doomsday. "If you're gonna dine with those animals/sooner or later darling/you're gonna get eaten," proclaims Cave on “Cannibal’s Hymn.” Cave continues to expound on the core of humanity which can simultaneously be beautiful and ugly; attractive and repulsive. The entire span of both records could be deemed as a wild assortment of what makes Cave so visionary and vital, assimilating the dark lyrical storytelling approach of his underrated Murder Ballads with the rambunctious rock operatics of Let Love In.

Although the proceedings are delayed a bit during The Lyre of Orpheus, downtime is expected with Cave in light of reflection. Nearly each of Cave’s records are peppered with Nick’s affinity for haunting balladry, although this time out, like Tom Waits latest, there is less piano here than expected. Songs like “Babe You Turn Me On” and “Breathless” don’t fall under the category of trite, but rather, evolve into something endearingly wholesome. For Cave fans, this is a blessing in which quantity equals quality. Like any double record, it’s easy to consider the editing process and wonder if a single-disc would’ve been more pleasing, but in this case, you simply can’t get enough of Cave’s theatrics, even when his lyrics bleed into one another and border on pretentious. There is no other musician alive who would attempt and pull off an astonishing body of work that is encapsulated so remarkably with each track almost as illustrious as the next on both Abattoir Blues and The Lyre of Orpheus.

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