In praise of Nick Cave
On a drive back from Whitby (a beautiful place on the North Yorkshire coastline) with my girlfriend (a beautiful girl from the Cornish coastline) we had a conversation that went a bit like this:
HER: So who’s Nick Cave?
ME: [splutter, splutter, reach for iPod]
I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty easy to miss someone in the middle of the great pantheon that is rock and roll. But to miss Nick Cave is a bit like building a car without an enigin. So for all those who haven’t heard of the moustachioed Australian wonderman, here’s why I think he is quite so ace.
Nick Cave is not just a singer, songwriter or frontman, although he is of course all of those things. He’s also a novelist, screenwriter and composer of film soundtracks. I’d heard of him before but only really got into his music when a friend of mine played me Where Wild Roses Grow, a duet with Kylie Minogue from the Murder Ballads album. Cave’s voice reminds me of Leonard Cohen at his finest - a deeply resonant voice with overtones of despair and depression, but also of hard won knowledge. I’d recommend that anyone interested in exploring Cave’s music start with Murder Ballads - it’s basically a concept album in which, funilly enough, each song tells the story of a (sometimes multiple) murder. The musical style is lush in places, sparse in others - a true guide to Cave’s versatility as well as his dark lyrical world. Perhaps my favourite song on the album is The Curse of Millhaven - a six minute folk punk rockout telling the story of a psychopathic teenage killer.
But Cave isn’t just about exploring the dark side. His album The Boatman’s Call contains some of the most haunting love songs I’ve ever come across. It’s a great counterpoint to Murder Ballads. So why not check out Cave’s work today?
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