Search - Nick Cave, Bad Seeds :: No More Shall We Part

A few lines of anger and despair is all it takes....

yorgos dalman | Holland, Europe | 02/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the greatest achievements of Lord Nick Cave that he is a master of both the ballad form and the more heart throbbing rocksongs, or in Nick's case, the Old-Testament-like outbursts, and the fact that The Singer is capable of switching from one to the other in less than a split second. Watch the live performance in Paradiso on the double dvd `Road to God knows where / Live at Paradiso' and witness how The Man easily alternates scream-what-you-preach-songs like `The mercy seat', `Tupelo' and `From her to eternity' with slow paced songs like `In the ghetto' and `New world'.

The live dvd `God is in the house' shows how He does more of the same. It's a particular talent that is something not a lot of artists really possess. Tom Waits can do it, this perfect mix of introvert and extrovert music. The Angels of Light can do it. But who follows?



From Cave's debut `From her to eternity' all the way to `Murder ballads' Nick Cave presents us both slow and hard, impressionistic and expressionistic. Implosions and Explosions.

But then, in 1997, Nick surprised both friends and enemies with the all-ballad (of rather: just ballads) containing `Boatman's call'. Some consider this one of his best achievements, and that may be so lyrics-wise, and even so emotionally, the lack of musical supernova's made me feel al little lost at first. After some years now, I've learned to appreciate it, but still in a different way than any other Nick Cave album.



So when a few years later `No more shall we part' was announced I feared for more of the same, because voices were saying that this one was musically much alike . Dark, sad, and intens in emotions and feelings, but still paced and slow.

But for some mysterious reason this one grabbed me by the throat and never let go. The opening song `As I sat sadly by her side' sets the tone: a melancholic piano theme guids the listener through a sad song, but the melancholy presented here is more manic, restless, as if not at total ease like in `The boatman's call'. The violin and female voice on `Sweetheart come' are heartbreaking, and Nick Cave's whispering on `God is in the house' ear shattering.

And talking about those long loved but lost outbursts.... `Fifteen feet of pure white snow' is even rocking and groovy enough to dance on (if you want proof: watch the video which you can find as a bonus on the `God is in the house' dvd), and on the most haunting track `The sorrowful wife' Nick Cave does looses his temper for a few seconds and cries out. It's just a few lines he cries out, and they are perhaps the only couple of lines he screams on the entire album, but Nick's voice here is intense and desperate enough to both scare and please the listener at the same time.

Hey, there is that duality again. The Nick is back.

"