The Boatman’s Call

It's softer Nick Cave which is not always my thing but this works for me anyway

This didn’t come close to Murder Ballads as my favourite Nick Cave album but it was still a really good listen. I enjoyed every song on it but it just lacked that something that blew me away enough to go for the full five.

This completes all the Nick Cave albums on the list for me. He’s definitely a Top 5 discovery so far for, I’ve given him three 5 stars and two 4’s. Amazing because I hated Murder Ballads first time I heard it. I was talked into giving it a second go and as far as I can remember it’s the only score I’ve gone back to edit.

Top Track - There Is A Kingdom

he has a cool voice and everything but once again a whole album is too much for me

Another Nick Cave album? So soon? Interestingly, it's very different from the last one I had. It's all introspective piano ballads, a far cry from the shocking theatrics of Murder Ballads. The lyrics are better here, and the songs are often good but not great. Like Murder Ballads, it's a good album that isn't going to be something I listen to often. However, it's not quite as memorable or interesting.

This album is ranked #10 of 25 albums for 1997. Other 1997 albums rated by me:
Either Or(4/25)-3
Urban Hymns(5/25)-3
In It For The Money(8/25)-2
A Short Album About Love(19/25)-3
Life Thru A Lens(21/25)-1
Let's Get Killed(22/25)-3

In the first line of the first song Cave sings, "I don't believe in a interventionist God" and we're off! Off on a tour where Nick gives us a chance to admire his cleverness almost as much as he does.

The songs are each as deeply miserable and dark as each other. Somewhere Morrisey is saying, "You just need to cheer up dude!"

It's the ideal soundtrack album for the sad and lonely - ABBA for the depressed.

love his voice but I like the Good Son album better.

The piano led approach really suit Nick Cave’s vocals.
Brompton Oratory synthetic beats somehow lift the tempo just at the point it was all getting too samey. There is a Kingdom has a fuller sound to it as well which makes for a warmer experience than felt possible at the start of the album.
Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere is exactly what you want from a Nick Cave track. Dark foreboding deep tale where the poor old donkey “moans”.
Overall a more melodic album with only the strange spoken overdub on the final track a misstep.

I've said this every time Nick Cave has come up, but he can't sing. And I don't really care. His voice suits the types of stories he's telling and I enjoy it on every album I hear.

I tend to like Nick Cave songs best when they're on the quicker, heavier side (musically and lyrically) and this album was mostly broodingly melancholy in a slightly plodding way. I liked it, People Just Ain't No Good and Idiot Prayer especially, but I didn't love it.

I think this is a night-time album and I listened to it in the morning, in an uncomfortable bed in a Travelodge. The ambience was all wrong. At some point I'm going to try again, sat in a nice chair, sipping a glass of Cointreau Noir.

3/5

I usually dig Nick Cave when he keeps things dark and slow, but The Boatman's Call just feels like he's trying way too hard. "Into My Arms" is a gorgeous start, it’s actually restrained and hits just right, but after that, the whole thing turns into a 50 minute slog of piano dirges. It feels like he’s playing up the "tortured poet" act a bit too much, and without the usual chaos of the Bad Seeds to balance it out, the lyrics just sound clunky and overly serious.

Probably the weakest of all the Nick Cave albums I have listened to so far. The storytelling is still solid on here and the piano instrumentals are good enough. I just don’t think it’s quite to the level of a Henry’s Dream or AB/TLoO. Favorites were Into My Arms and The One That I’ve Been Waiting For?

The Good: The Boatman gave a call...
The Bad: He wants his boat back...
The Ugly: Boat done sunk, boatman's gonna come calling for a whooping...

I don't like Nick Cave... I know that he's the darling of many... just not my darling... I like Tom Waits.

So, this album... 3* out of respect.... but truthfully, I can't even remember listening to it, and this was only a week ago... so it did not make an impression on me.

Sorry Nick

Oh Nick, we're really in it now

4.5

This is another great album from a great artist. Compared to the albums leading up to this one, it’s much more chill. That post-punk energy is now mostly piano driven songs that are dark and pleasant. This is a very enjoyable listen if you already like Nicks music. The problem with this list is there are too many albums represented by a single artist. Like I’ve said in past reviews, find two that represent the different sides of an artist and let us explore more if we enjoy it. We are living in the age of streaming music. It doesn’t cost me any more money to listen to other albums of I like what I hear. This makes room for the bands that should have albums on here.

Nick Cave's latest album in this project. And once again, it's a great one. I like his voice and his somewhat dark arrangements. I'll definitely listen to this again. 5/5

Well, hmm, what can I say? Nick and I won't be friends anymore. He’s undoubtedly a brilliant songwriter, and this album is certainly one of his best. Its understated, ballad-like quality certainly suits his nature. "The Boatman's Call" is a melancholic album. The post-punk attitude of his earlier albums has vanished, and Cave makes unmistakable references to past music. Elvis, Sinatra and perhaps also Scott Walker and Tom Waits have served as his muses, both lyrically and musically. Here, Cave is not the rebel of his early years, but the poet. However, there’s always a point in his albums where the cosy poetry becomes overbearing, and the posturing and self-absorption seems to become apparent. Towards the end, I found it hard to listen to the album. If it were half as long, I’d be completely satisfied. And yes, I’m probably doing Nick Cave an injustice. But I simply can’t get to grips with him over the length of a whole album.

I just can’t get into this dudes music!

The Boatman’s Call by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is one of my top six pinned albums on Apple Music, which probably says everything about how I feel about it. I’ve loved this album for more than 20 years, and somehow it just seems to get better and mean more to me with every listen.

“Into My Arms” is about as close to a perfect song as you can get. Beautifully simple, incredibly moving and with some of the most powerful lyrics ever written about love. It has always been a special song to me, but even more so now as the lyrics were used as a reading at my wedding just a couple of weeks ago. I genuinely can’t think of a better love song.

But this album is so much more than that one song. Every track is beautiful. It’s incredibly intimate and stripped back, with Cave’s voice, piano and lyrics doing most of the work. Songs like “People Ain’t No Good”, “Brompton Oratory” and “(Are You) The One That I’ve Been Waiting For?” are stunning. There’s sadness and heartbreak throughout, but also love, humour and moments of real tenderness.

Sometimes the best music comes out of heartbreak, and The Boatman’s Call is a perfect example. Cave was writing in the aftermath of failed relationships, and you can feel that vulnerability throughout the record. It also marked a real change of direction for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, moving away from some of the darker, louder and more theatrical music of their earlier albums towards something much more personal and exposed.

There’s nowhere for the songs to hide, and they don’t need to. The melodies are beautiful, the lyrics are extraordinary and Cave’s delivery makes every word feel important. It’s an album that demands to be listened to properly.

I adore this record. After more than 20 years of listening to it, I’m still finding things in it, and if anything I love it more now than I did when I first heard it. An absolute masterpiece and easily one of my favourite albums of all time.

Favourite track: “Into My Arms”. Perfection. One of my favourite songs ever written and now one that will always remind me of my wedding.

Least favourite track: Nothing. Every song deserves its place and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Album artwork: Iconic. Simple, dark and perfectly suited to the intimacy of the album.

This is a hauntingly beautiful record, and one in which for the first time in his discography Nick Cave is not only trying to sound dark but is also able to effectively convey a certain imagery that makes the album dark and melancholic tone really shine.

9/10 [KEEP]

I've only listened to one other Nick Cave album as part of listening related to this site. I don't think I recognize any of these tracks by title.

In my review for my previous Nick Cave listen, I noted that Nick Cave has always felt like more style than substance. And again, that's how I feel about this album. I did not enjoy this.

Cave puts forth his oeuvre easily- dour, gloomy, and heartfelt feelings all over these songs. I liked this one better than Abbatoir, which was messy. Overall a solid 3