NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS From Her To Eternity

Artist: NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
Title: From Her To Eternity
Year of Release: 1984
Label: Mute
Format: CD

Eerie is not quite the right word, but Nick Cave’s first post Birthday Party offering is a dark, morose and brooding affair. Opening cut ‘Avalanche’ portrays a great maturity that doesn’t belie the ‘Mutiny’ era of his previous band, though serves to demonstrate Cave and co in a more focused light.

Cave’s lyrics are somewhat less cryptic and more singular in their thematic approach from track to track, though it is worth noting that this is a smooth transition; probably best described as an organic evolution. It all feels very natural.

The grand piano of ‘Cabin Fever’ is divergent to the more traditional performance that accompanies the band’s cover version of Elvis’ ‘In The Ghetto’ with its lush strings and Cave’s signature voice.

The album has a sparse, urgent aura and I think that Blixa Bargeld’s minimalistic guitar playing has liberated the band of that conventional swarm that many guitar focused acts possess leaving a more gyrating, pulsating, rollicking sensation that truly gives cuts such as ‘Cabin Fever’ an authentic high sea experience.

The album’s unconventional aura, coupled with its unique sound and production can’t be underplayed with regard to why this release was so successful. It’s the product of a new act, keen to explore Cave’s vast array of ideas with an open mind and a disregard for that which went before it… even from one track to another – yet there is a cohesion that is almost hard to describe.

Check out the 'In The Ghetto' Video: