If only I had bumped The Boatman’s Call further up on my list. Or if only Andy had chosen that Nick Cave album instead. Then I’d be spouting about what I like best about Cave (stinging religious and romantic incredulism, disarming disappointment, wryness to the max) instead of trying to form words about Murder Ballads, which leaves me conflicted. I mean, it’s a fascinating project, but not one I want to revisit start to finish any old day. I might even call it a carefully constructed novelty.
It may be the subject matter: I’d rather hang with the frustrated living than the wrongful dead and criminally insane.
Tracks or tales that grab me include “Stagger Lee,” “Henry Lee,” “The Kindness of Strangers,” and “The Curse of Millhaven.” Tracks I tire of include at least “Lovely Creature” and “O’Malley’s Bar.” I get what they’re up to, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy their company. Also, the final track, the Dylan cover “Death is Not the End,” seems a questionable statement in this context, if not an ironic one. Maybe this is what Cave was going for, but after the album rattles listeners through and through, it would be some small consolation to trust the sincerity of this song’s inclusion. Oh, and does anyone else find the sub-verbals (screaming, crying) and sound effects (bullets) on this album overly theatrical? Really, Mr. Cave, the stories and their delivery are plenty scary already. Finally, I wonder if Murder Ballads is of a time, like a murder trend, and if this Po Mo reanimation of the infamous bloody dead shocked and rocked most in the couple of years after its release.
In contrast, The Killers’ Hot Fuss just digs its hooks in and stays pretty darn catchy throughout. There’s no song that fully irritates me, and there’s no song that fully engages me. I enjoyed listening to this album, or I enjoyed it as long as I didn’t take it too seriously on too many levels. Once I started taking these albums more seriously, though, I realized that Hot Fuss is not the album that preoccupies me or makes me want to pick it apart.
So: Even if I’m seldom inclined to take in Murder Ballads cover to cover, it turns out I was wrong about at least one of my complaints in the first paragraph. I like forming words about this album. Just not enough to stay indoors toying with the macabre on an 80+ degree day.
In other words, Cave moves on.
ReplyDeleteGood point about the confusing message of "Death Is Not the End".
ReplyDeleteI've often thought that "death is not the end" could be viewed are more of a threat...particularly in the hands of mr. cave and friends...all of the songs on murder ballads recount the horrors of life, evil people etc. and "death is not the end" almost implies a sort of hell...as in, "not even death can provide relief/release from the unbearable"
ReplyDeletemaybe that's what you were getting at...anyway, all the best....
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ReplyDeleteYeah, Andy, that's sorta where I was headed with that. I get a bit anxious for some reprieve at the end of the album, some reminder that all's not lost, but I don't trust that Cave is using the song in that way. That's maybe nifty of him, but after "O'Malley's Bar" especially, whew. Not that I'm looking for all the deceased to meet for hot chocolate in paradise or anything...
ReplyDeleteI agree, Sarah...I can't just pick up this album and listen to it any old day of the week. I consider it Mr. Cave's homage to a very old genre of song, executed with his own unique flair and air of menace. I think he enjoys the story-telling of it all...It's kind of like the blues...The singer has a "And-you-think-you've-got-it-bad" tale to tell which actually has a cathartic effect on the listener...
ReplyDeleteBut I don't know...I actually do find some solace in "Death is Not the End" after all the carnage and bloodshed on this album. I like it because it is so open-ended...In certain Rabbinic traditions, they say the dead "return to God", which is a pretty fitting way to describe my current views of the afterlife and about as specific as I'm willing to get. I like to think that is the hope offered in this song, as somberly done as it may be...
P.S. Love your review title by the way...;)