Type: Lyrics are included with the album, Contains explicit content
Genre: Rock
Review
In some ways, Murder Ballads is the record Nick Cave was waiting to make for his entire career. Death and violence have always haunted his music, even when he wasn't explicitly singing about the subject. On Murder Ballads, he sings about nothing but death in the most gruesome, shocking fashion. Divided between originals and covers, the record is awash in both morbid humor and sobering horror, as the Bad Seeds provide an appropriate backdrop for the carnage, alternating between blues, country, and lounge-jazz. Opening the affair is "Song for Joy," a tale from a father who has witnessed his family's death at the hands of serial killer. It is the most disturbing number on the record, lacking any of the gallows humor that balances out the other songs. Cave's duets with Kylie Minogue ("Where the Wild Roses Grow") and PJ Harvey ("Henry Lee") are intriguing, but the true tours de force of the album are "Stagger Lee" and "O'Malley's Bar." Working from an obscure, vulgar variation on "Stagger Lee," Cave increases the sordidness of the song, making Stagger an utterly irredeemable character. The original "O'Malley's Bar" is even stronger, as he spins a bizarrely funny epic of one man's slaughter of an entire bar. During "O'Malley's Bar," Cave and the Bad Seeds are at the height of their powers and the performances rank among the best they have ever recorded. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Nick Cave (Organ), Nick Cave (Guitar), Nick Cave (Piano), Nick Cave (Arranger), Nick Cave (Organ (Hammond)), Nick Cave (Sound Effects), Nick Cave (Vocals), Nick Cave (Choir, Chorus), Nick Cave (Producer), Nick Cave (Main Performer), Nick Cave (?), Nick Cave (String Arrangements), Kylie Minogue (Vocals), Dave Graney (Vocals), Dave Graney (Choir, Chorus), Anita Lane (Sound Effects), Anita Lane (Vocals), Anita Lane (?), PJ Harvey (Vocals), Jenny Anderson (Violin), Blixa Bargeld (Guitar), Blixa Bargeld (Sound Effects), Blixa Bargeld (Vocals), Blixa Bargeld (Voices), Martyn Casey (Bass), Martyn Casey (Guitar (Bass)), Martyn Casey (Vocals), Martyn Casey (Choir, Chorus), Terry Edwards (Horn), Warren Ellis (Violin), Warren Ellis (Accordion), Warren Ellis (Vocals), Warren Ellis (Choir, Chorus), Mick Harvey (Organ), Mick Harvey (Guitar (Acoustic)), Mick Harvey (Bass), Mick Harvey (Guitar), Mick Harvey (Percussion), Mick Harvey (Arranger), Mick Harvey (Drums), Mick Harvey (Guitar (Bass)), Mick Harvey (Organ (Hammond)), Mick Harvey (Vocals (Background)), Mick Harvey (Multi Instruments), Mick Harvey (?), Mick Harvey (String Arrangements), Mick Harvey (Space Belt), Rowland Howard (Vocals), Rowland Howard (Choir, Chorus), Geri Johnson (Vocals), Geri Johnson (Choir, Chorus), James Johnston (Vocals), James Johnston (Choir, Chorus), Shane MacGowan (Vocals), Helen Mountfort (Cello), Conway Savage (Organ), Conway Savage (Piano), Conway Savage (Vocals), Conway Savage (Vocals (Background)), Conway Savage (Choir, Chorus), Jim Sclavunos (Percussion), Jim Sclavunos (Drums), Jim Sclavunos (Tambourine), Jim Sclavunos (Bells), Victor Van Vugt (Producer), Thomas Wydler (Trombone), Thomas Wydler (Drums), Thomas Wydler (Maracas), Thomas Wydler (Tambourine), Thomas Wydler (Vocals), Thomas Wydler (Choir, Chorus), Tony Cohen (Producer), Katharine Blake (Vocals), Katharine Blake (Choir, Chorus), Liz Corcoran (Vocals), Kerran Coulter (Viola), Mariella del Conte (Vocals), Brian Hooper (Bass), Brian Hooper (Vocals), Brian Hooper (Choir, Chorus), Ian Johnson (Choir, Chorus), Spencer P. Jones (Vocals), Spencer P. Jones (Choir, Chorus), Clare Moore (Vocals), Clare Moore (Choir, Chorus), Astrid Munday (Vocals), Astrid Munday (Choir, Chorus), Hugo Race (Guitar), Sue Simpson (Violin), Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (Performer), Bad Seed (Producer), Bad Seed (Performer), Gregg Jackman (Mixing), Ray Staff (Mastering), Jen Anderson (Violin), Johannes Beck (Art Direction)
This article is about the Nick Cave album. For the type of song, see murder ballad.
Murder Ballads is the ninth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 1996 on Mute Records. As its title suggests, the album consists of new and traditional murder ballads, a genre of songs that relays the details (and often consequences) of crimes of passion.
Murder Ballads is the band's biggest commercial success to date, most likely helped by the unexpected repeated airplay of the "Where the Wild Roses Grow" video on MTV. MTV even nominated Cave for their "best male artist" award of that year, though this nomination was later withdrawn at Cave's request [1].
Muder Ballads received almost unanimous critical praise with Rolling Stone awarding it 4 Stars and stating "...never before have manic elements elevated Cave's shtick to art as on Murder Ballads....literate, sultry and tortured....the performance of Nick Cave's life..."[1]Entertainment Weekly rated the album a B+ and warned it was "Not for the squeamish, this is the rare pop record that resonates with the weight of the ages..." and the New York Times stated "...Murder Ballads is about more than storytelling. In each song, Mr. Cave meticulously creates a macabre fable and then distills it to a single image of death in much the way a photographer arranges a studio shoot..."[2][3] In the English music press Q magazine awarded it 3 Stars and observed "...Musically, the Bad Seeds touch on tinkling cabaret jazz, country-paced morbidity and every morose station between..." while it ranked #16 on Melody Maker's list of 1996's Albums Of The Year and #7 in the NME's 1996 critic's poll.[4][5][6]
"Song of Joy" is a story of a man whose wife Joy and their three children, Hilda, Hattie and Holly, are murdered, leaving the man a drifter, as all he loves and holds dear has been stolen from him. In Cave's biography, Bad Seed by Ian Johnston, which only goes up to the preceding album Let Love In, it is mentioned that he was working on a new song called "Red Right Hand II", involving a man killing his three children. This may be the same song in a finished form, and, indeed, the lyrics mention "in my house he wrote his red right hand, which I'm told is from Paradise Lost". The Narrator portrays himself as the victim of the crime, however, the song itself strongly implies a connection between the killer's continuing murder-spree and the widower's seemingly-aimless wandering; Cave's delivery and further references to Milton suggest that the narrator is, in fact, himself the murderer.
"Stagger Lee" is based on a traditional song about the African-Americanmurderer of the same name. Cave's version draws most of the lyrics from a 1967 transcription published in the 1976 book The Life: The lore and folk poetry of the black hustler (see reference).
"Henry Lee" is also based on a traditional song (or two), often referred to as Young Hunting. It tells of a woman who kills a man because he did not sleep with her or love her. It is a duet with PJ Harvey, a British rock singer who was in a relationship with Cave at the time.
"Lovely Creature" tells an abstract tale of finding and losing love through death. It is possible to interpret the lyrics as a sort of vanishing hitchhiker legend.
"Where the Wild Roses Grow" was a very popular duet with Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue. Nick says the traditional song "The Willow Garden" (which is a B-Side on the "Where the Wild Roses Grow" single) was the song that inspired him to write "Where The Wild Roses Grow". It's a classic tale of a man courting a woman and killing her while they're out together.
"The Curse of Millhaven" is a song of a mad girl called Loretta whose "eyes are green" and "hair is yellow". She describes the deaths of townsfolk, pointing out how "all God's creatures, they've all got to die". It is then revealed, in the failed stabbing of Mrs. Colgate, that Lottie is in fact the killer. "Curse" uses the fictional town of Millhaven, created by Peter Straub and came out on paper in his books regarding "The Blue Rose Murders". In particular, the novel The Throat has been recommended by Nick.
"The Kindness of Strangers" centers on a young girl named Mary Bellows, who travels to see the ocean. On the way she meets Richard Slade, but tells him to leave once she has a room. She finds herself lonely and unlocks her door, only to be killed by (presumably, although it is not explicitly stated) Slade.
"Crow Jane" shares its title with a traditional blues song. Cave's version appears to be entirely original. In his version, it seems Crow Jane is gang raped, then visits a gunshop, arms herself, and kills the twenty miners who raped her.
"O'Malley's Bar" is a long song about a man who goes into a bar and kills his fellow townsfolk. He feels elated and sexually aroused by this killing, but is caught by the police. In the car, moving away from the bar, he begins counting those he killed on his fingers. The chances are he'll have a hard time keeping track; the song runs for over fourteen minutes.
"Death Is Not the End" is a song featuring several vocalists, such as Anita Lane, Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey, and Shane McGowan, including Cave himself and his bandmembers drummer Thomas Wydler and guitarist Blixa Bargeld. They each sing a verse in this cover of a Bob Dylan song, the only song in which an actual death does not occur.
The death count on the entire album comes to 64, or a mean average (rounding) of 7 deaths per song.
