Nick Cave |
Another set of melancholy music tonight. Nick
Cave is one of Australia’s undisputed icons and giants of the arts. From his days as a goth punk in the early 80s
to the present when he is one of a handful of Australian rock ‘n rollers who
sit head and shoulders above the vast cultural landscape as guardians and
heralds.
What got me hooked on his music is his fascination with
salvation and God. Like Johnny Cash,
Nick’s approach to religion seems to be a combination of fear and
trembling, longing and haughtiness. Even in the deepest depths of his doubt Nick is able to touch upon the light
and ephemeral non-real reality of the divine. And like the music of Cash, Nick’s melancholy is of a hopeful
variety.
The other thing Nick
is able to do better than anyone is get a musicality and tenor to his songs
that conjure up the dark of night. I don’t want to say ‘gothic’ for the disastrous
connotations that word elicits and so perhaps melancholy is the better
description. His tunes have a sort of Edgar Allan Poe weird ancientness to
them. They are not sparsely populated but rather strewn with layers of strings,
piano and glorious moaning choruses. The
melodies are rich and the sound as lush and heavy as velvet.
All of which is doing nothing but injustice to his great music. Tonight’s episode is the 2000 album No More Shall We Part, a collection of
mournful love songs which for my money is one of his best efforts.
Track
Listing:
01 As I Sat
Sadly By Her Side
02 And No More Shall We Part
03 Hallelujah
04 Love Letter
05 Fifteen Feet Of Pure White
Snow
06 God Is In The House
07 Oh My Lord
08 Sweetheart Come
09 The Sorrowful Wife
10 We Came Along This Road
11 Gates To The Garden
12 Darker With The Day
1 comment:
Being an X-files fan I first heard Nick on the album Songs In The Key of X, His Red Right Hand fit the mood perfectly.
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