Henry's Dream - Nick Cave/Bad Seeds (The)

Man, I love this album. I have been listening to it almost non stop for months now and it never ceases to impress me. Firstly, it creates a much needed balance between the two albums gone before it – Tender Prey and The Good son. For those who had loved Tender Prey, The Good son was a bit of a shock. While the stories Cave told were actually still as deep and unsettling as ever, it was the more simple and direct songs amongst the set such as The ...
...a bit of a kick in the cherries! The Bad Seeds were becoming far more diverse by exploring the love song as well as the death song, and all for the better for it.
Secondly, you can tell that time has been spent on the album with fine tuning it. The Bad Seeds weren’t impressed with the production on the album when it was originally recorded so they set about mixing it themselves after kicking the producer, David Briggs. Amazingly, Cave was ... more

Man, I love this album. I have been listening to it almost non stop for months now and it never ceases to impress me. Firstly, it creates a much needed balance between the two albums gone before it – Tender Prey and The Good son. For those who had loved Tender Prey, The Good son was a bit of a shock. While the stories Cave told were actually still as deep and unsettling as ever, it was the more simple and direct songs amongst the set such as The Ship Song that perhaps gave the long time Cave fan a bit of a kick in the cherries! The Bad Seeds were becoming far more diverse by exploring the love song as well as the death song, and all for the better for it.
Secondly, you can tell that time has been spent on the album with fine tuning it. The Bad Seeds weren’t impressed with the production on the album when it was originally recorded so they set about mixing it themselves after kicking the producer, David Briggs. Amazingly, Cave was still reportedly unimpressed with the production. I find this very surprising as it is the production that I think adds to this album so much.

So what about the songs? There are so many of high quality, it is hard to know where to start. The songs here fall into two categories – The sweet and tender (Straight to you) and the violent & vicious (John Finn’s Wife); only the beautiful Loom of the Land falls somewhere between the two – a tale of two lovers, possibly fugitives, crossing “The loom of the land”.
One of my favourites here is Brother, My Cup is Empty. Cave snarls in disgust of how he “Cannot blame it all on her” but how he “wished he had watched her die”.

In almost every song Nick Cave inhabits a character of questionable motive and authentically tells their story. What is really impressive though is how he almost becomes each character. As a jilted drunk, he snarls! As a fugitive, he croons longingly. As he tells of a love never ending, he sings it from the heart.

Loom of the land and John Finn’s Wife leave me spellbound every time. I know I mentioned it before but Loom of the land is just the most gorgeous thing I have ever heard! It is as unsettling as it is beautiful, if only for the extremely minimalist backing which pushes Nick’s wretched poetry to the fore, while deep, resonating background harmonies from the Bad Seeds slowly work their magic.
John Finn’s Wife is a much different beast; the lyrics are a lot more direct but certainly no less involving. It starts off quiet, Nick simply speaking the lyrics, but by the end of the song it has erupted into a string-drenched widescreen epic in Dolby Surround! It also features some of my favourite Cave couplets, a notable one being “She got perfumed breasts and raven hair, sprinkled with wedding confetti’s, and a gang of Garrotters were all giving me stares, armed as they were with machetes”.

The album is brought to an end by the terrific Jack the Ripper, matched only by the opening Papa won’t leave you, Henry for sheer ferocity.

My advice to you is to buy this LP; it is one of the essential Cave albums. Furthermore it is simply one of the best albums money can buy.
Buy it, love it, then love it some more!

9/10 

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