Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus

The first half sounds like a better version of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, the commonality being Nick Cave positioning himself as the energetic and reckless entertainer. The lower key second half sees Cave performing chaotic piano ballads with a rickety band around him twanging guitars and thudding muted drums. I prefer him in the more amped up mode but can appreciate the vivid textures of the more acoustic set. All together it is far too long for me though and not enough songs grab my attention enough - despite the excellent musicianship and craft behind them.

Heard Before?
Yes, indeed. One of my top albums of that year.

Notes:
- a double album of late work from someone who coasted through the 90s on thinning goodwill? a tough sell, but then i put it on.
- the mix can be a little muddy, but mashing things together for the most exciting parts works for me. burying key details also rewards multiple listens.
- the arrangements are stellar. so many wonderful sounds, with surprises in every song. special mention should be given to the organ parts, the backing vocals and (especially) the auxiliary percussion.
- performances are absolutely committed throughout. everyone sounds thrilled with these songs.
- vocals especially - Cave manages to sell even his clunkiest couplets with verve. no lyric is too cringe for him not to lean into.
- structurally, this is a songwriting masterclass. so much variety, so many nifty change-ups and choices.
- sequencing is perfect, and I'm totally sold on the two halves approach, although for subsequent listens I have started with "Lyre of Orpheus" and then looped back to the start.

Verdict:
My favorite Nick Cave album. Over the top in all the best ways.

Listen Again:
Certainly.

First Nick Cave album and it’s as good as I thought it’d be. I’ve always liked this dudes vibe but I’ve never listened to a full album before.

možda najslabiji njegov (njihov? ovo je kao bend il neš) album koji sam preslušao, premda mi se također načelno dopao, malo je prerazvučen

I enjoyed this

Nick Cave is one of my favorite ever songwriters, but even I must admit that the list's Nick Cave picks are somewhat bizarre. Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus is one of the more defensible ones though, there are some fantastic highs here, and it has it's devotees. But I personally don't even think it's in the top five Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums. Although, I do think it has kind of been the archetype for all of Nick Cave's music after it. The gothic blues punk sound of his '80s and '90s output is largely tempered here. Nick Cave instead embraces orchestral arrangements, soulful currents, and the odd moment of muscular, minimalist rock. The evolution does kind of make sense if you spend enough time with his music, and the near Biblical intensity of his performances still give you the reminder that Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds sued to be much, much angrier. Regardless, there is still a certain kind of epic intensity to the best material here. Songs like Cannibal's Hymn, Hiding All Away, Fable Of The Brown Ape, The Lyre Of Orpheus, Supernaturally, Carry Me, and O Children are all *fantastic*. You'll find epic swells, understated rockers, pieces of high poetry, and moments of stunning beauty among the above songs. And outside of them, this still manages to be really consistent for a double album. Although, I don't know if it *really* benefits from it's length. Which becomes clear if you listen around Nick Cave's discography and hear albums that feel just as sprawling, yet manage to be much less bloated. Although, the experience of listening to this, combined with my stated bias, does a lot here. Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus still holds a place in Nick Cave's enormous discography as a fantastic statement.

Another double album is killing me rn

There was some good stuff on here and again I think I’ll probably have to come back and listen to the whole thing again properly to actually enjoy it. O children was probably my fav off of a single listen

3

Nick Cave is an artist who rewards deep investment, and Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus is clearly the work of a serious and gifted songwriter operating with real conviction. The gospel choir that drives much of Abattoir Blues is a more muscular and integrated use of backing vocals than you might expect — call and response as force rather than decoration, which lands considerably better than the syrupy approach that undermined Solomon Burke’s record earlier in this project.
Cave’s voice is deep, theatrical, and literary in a way that’s clearly an acquired taste. The words are doing heavy lifting throughout, dense with imagery and allusion, and whether that reads as richly rewarding or slightly exhausting probably determines where this record lands for any given listener. For this one, it lands somewhere in between.
The surprise is “Babe You Turn Me On” — a warm, melodically direct piece with an almost Neil Diamond grandiosity that Cave commits to completely and without irony. It’s the moment where the emotional temperature rises above the surrounding atmosphere and reminds you what this band can do when directness wins out over density.
The double album format gives the fine stretches room to accumulate, and there are enough of them to keep this comfortably in three-star territory. Pretty good throughout, occasionally better than that, never quite crossing into something that demands return visits.
A genuine three — respected, occasionally surprising, and ultimately content to stay at arm’s length.

It took awhile to fully digest this one.

Abattoir Blues
"Get Ready for Love" really made me nervous that this was going to be an 82min sermon but luckily that was NOT the case. The rest of Side A was super solid, with clear standouts being "There She Goes, My Beautiful World" and "Hiding All Away" (the best song on the record, imo). "Abattoir Blues" and "Fable of the Brown Ape" were not that great.
3.8/5

The Lyre of Orpheus
The second half was not as good as the first. The song "The Lyre of Orpheus" was annoying as hell. "Easy Money"(not a King Crimson cover, turns out), "Carry Me" and "O Children" were all great.
3.1/5

Together I score this a 3.47/5 -> 4/5. Side A was great enough to make up for side Bs shortcomings, and the closer on side B was great to make up for the crappy halfway closer on side A.

Abattoir Blues: 5/5. Lyre of Orpheus: 4/5. Overall: 4.5/5 (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2.)

This one is a double album in the sense that it is literally two albums. The first disc being “Abattoir Blues” and the second being “The Lyre of Orpheus.” Abattoir Blues sees Nick Cave and his band firing on all cylinders with some of the hardest hitting and loudest music of their career, which starts immediately with the pounding guitars and drums of the opener “get ready for love”. This first disc also contains my favorite Nick Cave song “There she goes my beautiful world”, which is an absolute banger of a song lyrically about Caves struggle to find artistic inspiration. The first disc of the album in general is just front-to-back greatness.

Disc 2, The Lyre of Orpheus, tones things down a bit and is still a pretty great listen. I love the lumbering title track that is a strange and morbid rendition of the Greek myth. And the closer “O children” is a fantastic bow to wrap up the album with. Its only downside is that I personally don’t think it’s as good as the first disc. But overall, a fantastic album and my personal favorite from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Nature boy er god og o Children naturligvis

Eh, it was ok. Didn't feel like anything special.

I

I was today years old when I found out that Nick Cave did the song Harry and Hermoine slow dance to in the seventh film.

If NC had picked a lane and lessened the length by about 25-30 minutes, this could have been great. I liked the more listener-friendly style he had put himself into here on the majority of it. And then there's some "weird for the sake of being weird" songs that do nothing for me and just end up taking time.

Nick Cave is an artist who I've always heard really good things about but have never gotten around to checking out. I was a little weary of the length of this going in with this being 17 songs long over 2 discs and over 80 minutes in length, but after listening to this I can safely say that it more than earns that runtime. I think that mainly comes down to both sides of the album being so different sonically, so I didn't have a chance to get tired of the album's sound before it moved into something completely different.

Abattoir Blues is the first and the louder side of the album, being made up of 9 anthemic, bluesy alt rock songs with super catchy choruses and a lot of gospel-esque backing vocals. I wasn't too familiar with Nick Cave's style going into this but I loved his vocals here, and I thought he brought so much character and personality to all of these songs, even the ones towards the end which didn't hit as hard instrumentally.

The Lyre Of Orpheus is the second disc and far softer in its sound than the first disc, with a huge focus on acoustic guitar and keys. I thought this was a bit more consistent than the first side, even if I thought that Abattoir Blues had the higher highs. Some of the album's lyrical highlights are found on this side too, with the song "The Lyre Of Orpheus" being a huge highlight for me, showing off Nick's ability to tell an engaging story throughout a song whilst not sacrificing any of the charm or catchiness found on the other songs on the album.

Overall, while I didn't know what to expect from this going in, I came out of this loving a majority of what I heard. While there are a few songs that don't hit as hard as others, I thought pretty much every track here brought something interesting to the table and despite the lengthy runtime, I thought this actually flew by and didn't drag at all. This definitely has me interested in checking out more from Nick Cave, because this was pretty fucking amazing.

Fav Songs: There She Goes My Beautiful World, O Children, Get Ready For Love, The Lyre Of Orpheus

Least Fav: Fable of the Brown Ape

9.1/10

*Really loved parts of this that were bluesy and up tempo.
*So dense that the parts that were slower to me, really dragged or at least took up time.
*Would give it a 3.5.

I’ve heard a few albums by them but not this one and this was a great listen.
You can probably put all of their albums on this list since whenever I hear one it always has such a deep vibe.
It’s interesting how the first album rocks so heavy with such a creative and exciting sound then the second album tones things down but with a different take on heavy.
Nick Cave should definitely be remembered as one of the greats of lyric writing, right up there with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen.

Abattoir Blues soleklar 5 og The Lyre of Orpheis en sterk 3’er. Så vi er tilbake som enkeltalbumpurister

Abattoir Blues er en energipakke og koret med gitaren får Cave til å høres ut som en punka svovelpredikant. «There She Goes My Beautiful World» er så intens at jeg blir utmattet av den, men på en god måte. «Get Ready For Love» har et av verdens kuleste trommebrekk (2:42)

Oprpheus er litt bland, men avslutter sterkt med «Carry Me» og den evig mektige «O Children». Nok til å bli religiøs av

A great album. I even have it on CD, but I haven't listened to it in a long time. I should do that more often, even though it's not Nick Cave's strongest album. 5/5

I've listened to this one before, but is my second listen overall. I've decided on listening to this album in a way where I'll listen to Abattoir Blues the night before I listen to The Lyre of Orpheus which would be in the morning after. As to properly enjoy the two sections of the album unlike the previous time where I was drained by the first tracks of The Lyre of Orpheus.

Abattoir Blues:
It starts off with an extremely explosive song ("Get Ready For Love") The inflection in Cave's voice in "Cannibals Hymn" is insanely good. Then the swaying beat into the blistering noise of "Hiding All Away" is amazing. "There She Goes, My Beautiful World" has a powerful chorus, the vocals (backing and lead) are really well down. "Nature Boy" has a really catchy chorus, I also quite like the upbeat piano playing. "Abattoir Blues" is a nice subdued refresher track. Another powerful chorus in "Let the Bells Ring," the album does a good job on anthemic-like choruses. "Fable of the Brown Ape" is definitely a good closer for the first half of the album.

The Lyre of Orpheus:
The lyrics in "The Lyre of Orpheus" are top-notch. "Babe You Turn Me On" is a really sweet song especially with it's whimsical melody. "Easy Money" nice slow number a la "Abattoir Blues" song from the previous section. The instrumentation in "Supernaturally" is wonderful. The backing vocals are quite lovely and the melody that plays after that (played by a violin?) is good. I really like the arrangement on "Carry Me" and I believe it's a really penultimate song. "O Children" is definitely the most suitable song to close this big album.

Conclusion:
I definitely like Abattoir Blues a lot more than The Lyre Of Orpheus, evident by me writing (or typing I suppose) a lot less for that section! The Abattoir Blues section had a lot more variety, rather than The Lyre Of Orpheus which tended to be more laid-back - which was fine by the way, it's not that I hate it - though most of the album has a similar vibe, it's just more apparent on the second half. Lots of feelings of tranquillity is felt on this album, which is a welcomed feeling. It's a solid album for sure, just how everything is layered, how all the parts compliment each other, all of it has a place and it's undeniably well thought-out.

Highlight Song/s: "Cannibal's Hymn", "There She Goes, My Beautiful World", "Nature Boy" and "Breathless"