The Boatman’s Call

What a lovely coincidence as just 2 days ago I bought tickets to see this great artist for the first time in my life! I was aware this is one of his best albums but don't remember listening to it full so pleasantly surprised, side 1 is perfect, at the very least 4 stars and rating 4.5/5.0 on RYM possibly. Highlights: "Into My Arms", "People Ain't No Good", "(Are You) the One That I've Been Waiting For?", "There Is A Kingdom".

P.S. Hopefully before the concert next summer I will get more of his stuff here but surprised this list doesn't include "Let Love In" which I considered his best one, but he does have tons of albums so worth exploring more.

This is the one about PJ Harvey. Not as dynamic as his earlier records but strong, melancholic songwriting that began his middle period.

The first song was pretty good, and then the rest of the tracks started to blend together and the album became kind of boring. I was going to give this a 3 because it was overall easy/pleasant to listen to, but Green Eyes was bafflingly bad and cringy. So now it’s a 2/5.

Amazing beautiful album.

I tried. I failed. This is pretty awful. Slow as hell, for example, I timed "Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere" on a metronome, and it was slower than the lowest setting of 40 bpm. Add the brushed snare and your depressing fiddle like some lumpy gravy all over the top.

If you like music like this, that's cool. Nick Cave is not great at it. I don't dislike him. Just his brand of pretentious post-punk Leonard Cohen schtick just doesn't work with these sad little living-room ballads. "West Country Girl" was ok. It wasn't worth going through the rest to get to this filk appropriation. Wake up indeed.

One that suffered from being in the wrong environs at the time of my original review - a subsequent revisit, after almost exactly 3 months to the letter, has unlocked its majesty to me. A specific headspace is needed to appreciate this to its fullest extent, but what a stunner of a record. Less of the typical Cave-drawling on this one and a greater emphasis on tender beauty.

O happy day! I like both Nicks, but Cave > Drake, and this is probably his best-known album (at least by me). The cover brings me intense nostalgia, and I support the font decisions. Nick Cave is part of a Wainwright - Cohen natural class and I am glad to see him represented here.

Highlights: 'Into My Arms' (Not overplayed imo -- properly played), 'People Ain't No Good', 'There is a Kingdom' (feeling somewhat "Girl who has only heard 'Within You Without You'" about this)

Almost highlight: '(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For' (I want to like this song, but it is too distractingly Hootie-and-the-Blowfishy)

Lowlights: 'Black Hair' (not much going on here; it's giving poetry reading), 'Green Eyes' (far too much going on here; put 'em together, it's the harry potter special (which I disavow))

One of their more lighter albums on the 1001 list... whilst still taking aim for those downwards brooding melancholy moods.

Nick cave brengt telkens wat anders en weet telkens een album één sfeer mee te geven. Dat leidde al tot 4en van mij. Maar als een artiest steeds wat anders doet, komt er ook een moment dat het een keer niet mijn smaak is. En dat moment is nu. Dit is veel te saai voor mij. Naast smaak, valt me ook op dat dit zich iets minder onderscheidt dan het andere werk dat we voorgeschoteld krijgen. Het album had van mij weggelaten kunnen worden. Nick heeft voldoende geleverd dat meer toevoegt.

It's not that deep bro

Great album, but not quite as great as DLD or AB/LO. Thankfully I've been in a stable relationship for over a decade, but I feel like this would be a perfect break up album for someone else.

Amateurish and pretentious is a bad combination, but shows hints of the inventiveness and gravitas to come

Not into it. I was bored. Not terrible, I just found it monotonous.

*Es ist ein eindringliches Album voller Melancholie und emotionaler Tiefe. Mit seiner sparsamen Instrumentierung und den introspektiven Texten zeigt es Cave von seiner verletzlichsten Seite. Besonders Stücke wie *Into My Arms* und *People Ain’t No Good* stechen durch ihre lyrische Intensität und schlichte Schönheit hervor. Gerne mal wieder.

I think I have to accept that Nick Cave and I just don't see eye to eye. This one was in the upper tier of Cave material for me (the Birthday Party album is still the low point), and his tuning seemed to be a bit better here than in other outings. Some so far pretty good, but the last song was hard to listen to.

All the songs are quality written and recorded but halfway through I realized they’re all about the same.

Moody. As expected.

Very dark voice, the music is calming. It was nice

I wanted to like this, but honestly found the vocals to be so repetitive that it became a tedious listen. The instrumentals were generally strong, but not enough to enjoy listening for an hour. 2.4/5 -> 2/5.

Really nice piano music.