#201
June 3 1985
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The Firstborn is Dead
Genre: Alternative…?
4.75 out of 5 (I could go .25 either way. I’m torn)
Highlights:
Tupelo
Say Goodbye to the Little Girl Tree
Train Long Suffering
The “Firstborn” of the title is, apparently, Elvis Presley’s stillborn twin brother. So you know this album is gonna be something muddy, swampy and dark. And “Tupelo” gets us started. It’s murky and menacing and hypnotic and delivers on the promise of From her to Eternity.
And once again the first thing that comes to mind is that Nick Cave isn’t a rock song writer. He doesn’t craft music for the casual listener. He’s writing musicals. Dark, dank off-broadway soundtracks. This is even more so than From Her. “Black Crow King” is so much the late 1st act nefarious adversary introductory song.
Has anyone put together a musical based on Cave’s music? They should. He’s absolutely writing these albums to be one. Or two.
But nothing here is so off-putting to non- book/lyric aficianados that they wouldn’t be able to appreciate it. In fact, I would say that it’s so engrossing and enveloping that if you aren’t a fan of that genre you might not know what I’m talking about.
I’d be very surprised if I learned that Patrick Stickles (Titus Andronicus) was not a Nick Cave fan.
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