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Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - Carnage

Started by Oz Oz Alice, February 25, 2021, 01:08:08 PM

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Oz Oz Alice

I have not played it yet, because I want to listen to it and have a virtual listening party with my friend this evening I am just alerting everyone to the fact that Nick Cave has done one of those surprise album releases and that I am frankly priapic about it.

sweeper

Pointless one-listen reaction: it's really good.

Not the return of Grinderman I thought I saw coming. Actually a lot like Ghosteen.

'White Elephant' got my jaw dropping.

scarecrow

The woke brigade aren't going to know what's hit them!

lankyguy95

One listen so I don't have much coherent to say. Still as captivating as ever, the arrangements are frequently great, strings are beautiful, I like the muffled beats pushed to the background in the first half of the record. Whole thing feels dense and spacious at the same time.

I think there's definitely a first half/second half split. White Elephant is... something. I'm not quite sure what the hell to say about that one. The sudden turn is mental. I think I might hate it. Or I might not. I maybe shouldn't go into music reviewing with analysis like that.

Oz Oz Alice

My thoughts having played it twice in succession (we're both off work so we moved the listen together forward a bit) are as follows:

- Something about Hand of God reminded me of one of my favourite albums of the 2010s, Girl With a Basket of Fruit by Xiu Xiu. Something about the high pitched backing vocal loops and string swoops mixing in with the electronic pulse. The shards of noise that punctuate this and Old Time took me aback.

- Nick's voice sounds incredible: along with Ghosteen (which I didn't like at first, coming to that later) and Idiot Prayer it shows that at this comparatively late stage in the game he's singing better than ever. I don't like to think of a world without Nick Cave but it's somewhat reassuring that he's in his early 60s and looking and sounding healthier and stronger than ever.

- White Elephant also dropped my jaw, I wasn't expecting to hear the level of venom from the first half of the song from Nick at this advanced point and especially considering how he's become such a kindly avuncular figure helping people work through their grief and interacting so much with fans. For a few seconds the guy who sang Deep In The Woods is back, and this time he's angry about something real. Then it bursts open into this noise-rock gospel chorale.

- Nick Cave fans who don't like the Warren Ellis influence, get out of my way. The run from Push The Sky Away so far is the best work he's done since Your Funeral, My Trial. This record demonstrates that at this point the Seeds are Cave and Ellis with a few hired hands and I'm fine with that. Before Warren Ellis got as heavily involved as he is now they were making pleasant bluesy rock with lyrics that deserved better like Abbatoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus - although on parts of that album you can hear the seeds (no pun intended) of what was to come. Gradually they edged out of that and went on to somewhere far more interesting.

- When Ghosteen came out I'd just finished what I wasn't to know would be the final run of gigs I'd ever play as the bandmate of a personal hero and artistic inspiration who became a friend. My username and avatar come from his work. I wasn't sure what to make of it at first so I messaged him and he sat down and played it and responded "It sounds like you're listening to Tangerine Dream while some bloke tells you how he chucked his son off a cliff". A bad taste quip akin to the Anton Newcombe thing about Eric Clapton, but aimed at a guy who wasn't as much of a cunt as Clapton (Nick Cave) by a guy who wasn't as much of a cunt as Newcombe (Simon). I laughed, and saw his point. Then after his suicide I played Ghosteen again and having experienced the worst grief of my life to date the album made a lot more sense.

- Shattered Ground sounds like something off Ghosteen, in that it is Nick Cave singing over a Badalamenti-esque synthscape but where most of Ghosteen was acceptance this is where we hear the denial and anger, the steps he skipped showing us publically. Skeleton Tree gave us bargaining and depression. It takes me back to the evening I threw one of Simon's books into the Mersey river in solidarity with the author having chucked himself in the sea. Maybe in some way the child would return to the parent. It is one of the most intense and beautiful performances I've heard from Nick Cave and it made me sob. Fitting for a prequel to Ghosteen.

- I don't like to keep making comparisons but Balcony Man, again being just Nick singing over a soft synth background makes me think as much of Paul Buchanan from the Blue Nile's unnecessarily underrated solo album Mid Air as it does Ghosteen. The sighing way he compares himself to Fred Astaire makes me think of Paul Buchanan singing of "starlight in my suitcase". What a wonderful way to end an album.


lankyguy95

Quote from: Oz Oz Alice on February 25, 2021, 06:01:57 PM
- Shattered Ground sounds like something off Ghosteen, in that it is Nick Cave singing over a Badalamenti-esque synthscape...
Exactly why it's my favourite after one listen.

Oz Oz Alice

A week and many plays later this is up there with Ghosteen for me at this point.

willbo

sorry to bump this but I've only just gotton into Carnage

I heard a lot of Cave and the Bad Seed's music as a kid in the 90s as I knew older adults who liked him in all the comic/record shops I went in, and older kids at school.

But I only really started getting into his music myself a few years ago, in the era of Dig Lazarus Dig, the Grinderman albums, Push the Sky Away, etc. I actually think I prefer his later stuff. I like his "rock n roll beat poet" style stuff that he has on the Dig and Grinderman albums.

Obviously his classics like Mercy Seat, Ship Song etc are great too. And I heard Red Right Hand and Wild Roses tons growing up.

I've streamed Carnage and it sounds great so far, though a very gentle laid back record. I wonder if he will do more rock n roll orientated stuff soon.

holyzombiejesus

They're touring it. Loads of relatively small places too (Hanley!) although prices don't seem proportionately cheaper. He's a money grabbing fucker, isn't he? Have you seen that tat he sells on Cave Things? Some of it looks like stuff my little boy brings home from nursery. Will still probably go and see him though, possibly in Bradford.

https://www.nickcave.com/tour-dates/

scarecrow

Let COVID In.

How much is the cunt charging for tickets?

Warren Ellis's upcoming book sounds quite good.

sevendaughters

Quote from: scarecrow on July 22, 2021, 11:46:05 AM
Let COVID In.

How much is the cunt charging for tickets?

Warren Ellis's upcoming book sounds quite good.

the local one to me (Philharmonic, Liverpool) is £85/£65/£55/£35

I've sat in the £35 for a Beethoven performance and they're very good for sound but not for the strange sexualisation of the performer, which I expect happens at Cave shows. You'll want a £65er just to see his hairline.

willbo

Quote from: sevendaughters on July 22, 2021, 12:26:51 PM
You'll want a £65er just to see his hairline.

has he always charged a pound for every year how old he is to see his hairline then?

holyzombiejesus

QuoteYou are number 110 in the queue

scarecrow

£60 for a restricted view. £90 for a decent seat. The fact it's clearly a terrible idea to do this in September...

SpiderChrist

"Why You Should Never Have Heroes" by SpiderChrist.

Chapter 5: Nick Cave

SweetPomPom

Quote from: sevendaughters on July 22, 2021, 12:26:51 PM
You'll want a £65er just to see his hairline.

That better be up in the circle, it's all reflective forehead in the stalls - would be blinding if not for that healthy tan.

Managed a decent seat for Brighton, apparently the London shows peaked at £100. "Fucking London cunts" as the man once said.

willbo

did you know he had kids born to 2 different women at the same time in the 90s

holyzombiejesus

Just got back from seeing them in Bradford. Majority was so great with just a couple of absolute stinkers.

SteveDave

Quote from: willbo on July 23, 2021, 04:11:01 PM
did you know he had kids born to 2 different women at the same time in the 90s

Just like Liam Gallagher! I'm liking this Cave fellow more and more.

Dannyhood91

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on September 15, 2021, 11:45:42 PM
Just got back from seeing them in Bradford. Majority was so great with just a couple of absolute stinkers.

I was at the same show. Personally loved it! One of the best I've ever seen. Hand of God was supreme!

holyzombiejesus

Yeah, HoG was incredible. White Elephant was great too. Thought the poorer songs were those where the backing singers came to the fore. That one which goes 'I am all around you' and the backing singers started moving round the stage was awful.

madhair60




madhair60

lmao i'm a fucking idiot

i thought this seemed a surprising career move

scarecrow

I think charging £90 a ticket makes him an abuser.

idunnosomename

yeah £30-£90 seats sucks but it's the going rate for big names these days since no one buys CDs I guess. rolled through my town but im not paying that to sit down

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: madhair60 on September 16, 2021, 01:48:29 PM
warren ellis is an abuser

No, but was dismayed to read in Nina Simone's Gum how he's friends with Suzanne Moore. :(

willbo

it's confusing as they're both associated with dark gothic westerns (comic Ellis being a creator of Preacher)

samadriel

Quote from: willbo on September 19, 2021, 09:38:29 PM
it's confusing as they're both associated with dark gothic westerns (comic Ellis being a creator of Preacher)

That's Garth Ennis.