Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

[Anon]

Hmm, Your Funeral..My Trial isn't his best, but there is some great stuff on there ("Stranger Than Kindness" and "The Carny" are both real stand-outs for me).  I'd put it in the 'good, but hard work' pile with FHTE myself.  I do agree with you on The Good Son though, a really under-rated album I think, although the slightly mawkish production dosn't help admittedly - how Nick Cave can complain about the wonderful, clear production on Henry's Dream and not find a problem with the production on that album I really don't know.

[Why I Hate Tables]

Your Funeral, My Trial is a very good album, with the often overlooked Jack's Shadow, Hardon For Love and the title track as well as Sad Waters, The Carny and Stranger Than Kindness which are recognised as classics. Only She Fell Away (which is still good) and the slightly dull closing Tim Rose cover let it down. Scum isn't really part of the album, being as it was tagged on.

The Firstborn is Dead is often overlooked, and to my mind it is the first real Bad Seeds album with From Her To Eternity being the laying to rest the ghosts of The Birthday Party. Mutiny In Heaven is one of the first real Cave songs in my opinion, with the melding of heroin; the fall of Satan; and that hard to erase from your mind image of wings bursting from his back. It also of course has the first appearance of Blixa's brilliance.

I got Dig Lazarus Dig today and.....I think it's his best in many years. Better than the double album Lyre/Abbatoir; better by a million miles than Nocturama; and an improvement on Grinderman. I really dig it!

[simondykes]

Hmm, Your Funeral..My Trial isn't his best, but there is some great stuff on there ("Stranger Than Kindness" and "The Carny" are both real stand-outs for me).  I'd put it in the 'good, but hard work' pile with FHTE myself.

Those are my two favourite songs on the album,but they're both on the best-of too,so I guess I kind of overlook it because of that.

[Ignatius_S]

Ooops, looks like I'm in the minority, but I've been fairly underwhelmed by this album.

Hmm, Your Funeral..My Trial isn't his best, but there is some great stuff on there ("Stranger Than Kindness" and "The Carny" are both real stand-outs for me).  I'd put it in the 'good, but hard work' pile with FHTE myself.  I do agree with you on The Good Son though, a really under-rated album I think, although the slightly mawkish production dosn't help admittedly - how Nick Cave can complain about the wonderful, clear production on Henry's Dream and not find a problem with the production on that album I really don't know.

With regards to Henry's Dream, Cave and the group were unhappy with the producer (wasn't a happy working relationship) and re-produced it as best as they could to their satisfaction - but Cave is unhappy with the result.

Cave is critical for HD because of the songs too – he says 'I had a Dream, has lyrics that don't mean anything, but sound good, for example. Not that it matters, but I rather like that myself, but there are ones like Christina The Astonishing & When I First Came To Town, that haven't stood the test for me.

Personally speaking, YFMT is probably my favourite album (not necessarily his best) and for me, marks an important stage in his solo career.

I'd say 'Boatmans Call' and 'Henrys Dream' are probably the two 'must have' albums,though 'Dig,Lazarus,Dig!!!' is possibly going to shoehorn itself into my top three any time now.I'd also go for 'The Good Son' for 'Ship Song' and 'Weeping Song' alone.
I've never been a big fan of 'Murder Ballads' myself. Although 'Nocturama' is usually seen as his weakest - and I wouldn't necessarily disagree - I always found 'Your Funeral/My Trial' a bit of a chore.

Cave would most likely to have sympathy with your view of Murder Ballads - he doesn't see MB as a 'proper' album par se, but more of a fun collection of songs with a central theme. I'm pretty sure that he said if he could go back, it would have been done under a different banner.

He has this view because of the way MB was recorded and that people just popped up saying 'but you said I could be on it', which meant a lot of people on the album, weren't meant to be on it - all of which made it less focussed than a proper album. I've a great fondness for it, though.

[Marvin]

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were fucking ace last night, one of the best gigs I've seen in a long time - good setlist (and length), was really pleased by some of the older songs included but also some of the new stuff was blisteringly good live, particularly We Call Upon the Author to Explain.

[trotsky assortment]

Nick & Co are on 'Later...' tonight, apparently.  Not checked myself, so I may have been misinformed.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

They were.

Blimey if he doesn't look more and more like Kevin Eldon trying to do an impression of him for a comedy show.

Plus, a little thing I noticed- Nick Cave is clearly too cool to button his shirt up in an orderly way, and just buttons it up any which way he feels like- surely- surely one of these days, he's going to accidentally button it correctly. But it never seems to happen, does it?

[scarecrow]

have a look at this: http://www.nme.com/news/nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds/38814

[scarecrow]

yikes, £32 a ticket for Edinburgh, £7 more than in May. And the Corn Exchange is REALLY shitty..

[Ignatius_S]

have a look at this: http://www.nme.com/news/nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds/38814

Although I'd already seen the dates, I hadn't realised they were re-releasing the early Seeds albums - cheers!

[trotsky assortment]

Just in case the passing comments in the other thread get missed:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/node/141930

Mute Records is set to reissue remastered, 5.1 surround sound-enhanced versions of the entirety of the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds discography, with the initial batch of four titles due later in 2008. Cave and the Seeds' first four discs-- 1984's From Her to Eternity, 1985's The Firstborn Is Dead, 1986's Kicking Against the Pricks, and 1986's Your Funeral... My Trial-- make up that initial batch, and boy, are they in for a treat. The collector's editions will be double disc sets containing both the remastered stereo album and the new surround mix, B-sides, and new liner notes. Each album will also contain one of a series of short films (collectively titled Do You Love Me Like I Love You?) made by the UK-based team of Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.

Indeed, Forsyth and Pollard are putting together Do You Love right now, and they need your help! "Have you been affected by the songs of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds?" they ask on their website. If the answer is yes, and you'd like to explain just how in front of a camera, you should probably click here pronto.

A mixed blessing, I think.  Those early Bad Seeds albums are in need of a remastering, so it's good news.  As for bonus b sides, it's likely anyone who bought the b-sides
box will have anything that's on offer; as for the films - surely there's more interesting stuff out there to put on a bonus DVD instead of a bunch of fan mumblings?!!