The Boatman's Call

Again, I feel like I'm supposed to like Nick Cave but I just don't. He tries SO HARD to be dark and broody and edgy and uncomfortable. It just leaves me thinking of that kid in drama class who wanted all the lead roles but overacted EVERYTHING so always got relegated to bit parts so he wouldn't screw up the whole show. You're not Hamlet, Nick. You're Rosencrantz.

The first song was pretty good, which got my hopes up. The rest of it was /r/im14andthisisdeep dominionist bullshit sung slowly with a piano

Shrek 2 song

Shit - how badly did PJ Harvey fuck up Nick Cave?

That was.... Really hard to endure. It's entirely a showcase of this dude's near tone deaf singing voice, accompanied by tragically minimal piano and strings. I say tragically, because if there was more going on to back the singer up he probably could have hid a bit better how really out of his depth he is in what he was trying to accomplish. Half the time it honestly sounds like he strains to hit some of the notes he goes for, ultimately failing at the attempt. The other half the time he falls back on very simple, seemingly thoughtless, go-nowhere melodies sung basically in his speaking voice; the kind of thing you'd get if you asked a child to improvise a love song on the spot. The same can be said for the lyrics. They don't fit nicely in the rhythm of the lines he's singing, making for an overall clunky and disjointed listening experience. What's more they give the vibe of someone clumsily groping around for ways to sound Quite Romantic- like these are words summoned from some foreign persona he's not quite comfortable with, but felt compelled to try on like an oversized suit. Again, a teenager's idea of longing romance. It's a shame that some of these instrumental movements are wasted on this dude's shadow puppet performance. The church organ shouldn't have entered this album's equation, but some other things sounded alright- violin and piano passages that I wish I could have heard divorced from the frontman. Special note; Green Eyes made me physically shudder and recoil. I've never heard a track on an apparently acclaimed project that literally, physically disgusted me, but I guess there's a first for everything.

If Tom Waits sang Leonard Cohen songs. Like Cohen, there's a deep spirituality entwined with male sexuality that I like in this. Such a smooth voice. Favourite track: "People Ain't No Good"

Not bad, but not really for me. Feels like the music equivalent of those oscar-winning movies that people like because they feel like they should. Honestly was a bit of a slog.

Probably my favourite Nick Cave record, as he goes with sparse production and really intimate and cathartic lyrics. Great piano work from Cave and the atmosphere from the Bad Seeds fits the mood of the songs perfectly. Fav Tracks: Into My Arms, Lime Tree Arbour, There Is A Kingdom, Brompton Oratory

I guess I just don't get it. I don't know why we have so many Nick Cave albums on here. Is he interesting? At times. Murder Ballads was ambitious and intriguing, a worthy inclusion. That said, he is very far from great. Want proof? He is revered by a good amount of critics (mainly English), as evidenced by having 5 albums on this list. And yet, here in the States, he has had one album that has sold more than 100k copies. One. That's incredibly hard to accomplish. Is he a complicated artist that is just misunderstood in the US? Perhaps. Or maybe, just maybe, he's a relatively uninspiring/bad signer, who is a lackluster song writer. Some examples, just from this album: "We'd buy the Sunday newspapers and never read a single word." "I don't believe in an interventionist God but I know, darling, that you do." "In a colonial hotel, we fucked up the sun and then we fucked it down again." He's incredibly trite throughout this record. Him trying sing layers about a "twinkling cunt"? Huh? Worse yet, this collection of songs are very basic with zero real musicality to them. The only bonus is that I've now burned through more than half of his albums on this countdown. Only two more to get rid of. While he hasn't supplanted Amy Winehouse as my least favorite artist on this countdown, I realize now I would rather listen to her than him. At least Amy had an excellent voice and talent, even if she totally wasted both. This dude is predominantly just a waste of time.

A diamond in the rough, a postman in the buff. A lolly left unlicked, a vote card left unticked. A raging bull, a rotting skull, a local paedo on the pull. A twisted nipple, a raspberry ripple a coked up alchy having one more tipple. A brutal rape, Professor Snape, a broken world we can't escape. Goodnight my dear. Goodnight.

I feel like I'm at risk of overrating Nick Cave here, after giving both Murder Ballads and Ghosteen five stars (I think I three starred another one - maybe Lyre of Orpheus? So I am impartial.) But this is another amazing album. To go from the bawdy darkness of Murder Ballads, to this album of faith, and doubt and beauty shows the versatility of Nick Cave on action. Amazing. Into My Arms is possibly the most beautiful love song ever composed.

One of my favourite albums from one of my favourite people on the planet that I am more than a little obsessed with. I am totally biased. This album is beautiful, full of wonder, peaceful and just lovely. This album and I are friends.

If Leonard Cohen did a prison stint.

Sorry, I just can't stand any of Nick Cave's music. I find some of the lyrics cringey (especially around how he describes women) and it's all a bit too melodramatic (though that's probably the point). Can just about stomach Into My Arms.

Be it a horrible act of God, personal tragedy has multiple times been a catalyst for Nick Cave to create some of the most moving music ever created. On The Boatman's Call, Cave muses on losing the love of his life, blending the line between his personal life and the characters in his lyrical universe. "I don't believe in an interventionist god". With a single line, Cave rejects his worship of Old Testament Christianity, previously an all-engulfing presence in his work (The Mercy Seat, "An eye for an eye, And a tooth for a tooth"), and accepts a much more human belief in spirituality, accompanied by a disbelief in humanity. Everything has been uprooted - the connection to god, the connection to people - and Cave is right to question; 'Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?'. Desperation is everywhere on 'The Boatman's Call', always paired with melancholy. 'Lime Tree Arbour' is an ominous warning of the revelation to come on 'People Just Ain't No Good', which is equal parts a warning and a denial acting as a coping mechanism. 'Brompton Oratory' manages to channel something primal in its pulsation, with a melody sounding so incredibly familiar as if Cave is musing over some internal truth hidden within all of us. The chorus of 'There Is a Kingdom' echoes this idea of a common connecting force even when the physical or emotional distance seems insurmountable as on the heartbreaking 'Far From Me'. But whether Cave believes this human longing for connection is something to appreciate or resent is not up for debate. The album's centerpiece makes it painstakingly clear. As the all to clear realization hits when the distance is already too far, Cave ponders "Are you the one that I've been waiting for?". And naturally, he receives no response. "Oh we will know, won't we? The stars will explode in the sky But they don't, do they? Stars have their moment and then they die"

Just utterly pathetic. Dog water shit trash fucking ugly Nick Cave making me irrationally angry on a Tuesday afternoon. Still somehow doesn’t deserve a one because Korn was that bad. 2/10

I've been looking for a Halloween costume. Do you think I can go as Nick Cave? Three-piece suit with tie. Unbuttoned collared shirt and slicked back long-dark hair. Heh, it would never work, 'm not that cool. NC seems like such a badass cool-guy that I WANT to like him. However, my listening experience similar to a 'bleak and fish-less sea'. So I listened again. Manly vocals, piano and gentle drumming. This is stripped down music. No frills. Nick Cave seems like he lives in a dirty dive bar and chain smokes Winstons with his band. He is stressed and oppressed by the world above him. Down here, he owns his domain. He's thoughtful and means every word he breathes. The first listen was joyless and settled me down in a chair of disappointment. The second time I listened was right after the first and it became the only bright spot of my day ... BECAUSE I HAD SPENT THE MORNING LISTENING TO IT. What a depressing and honest mess. Nick, go outside and spend some time in the sun, buddy, that bar is killing you.

I get the appear, sad songs are sad. Not sure if I needed a whole CD of this though. Much like Leonard Cohen, I'm sure there's lots of good lyrics here but don't have the patience to keep track of it.

Literally just asexual seafaring dracula talking about shit over depressing music

I am not a fanatical Nick Cave fan, but it turns out I own (check notes) nearly a dozen of his albums, by the time you take solo, Bad Seeds, Birthday Party, Boys Next Door and soundtracks into account. But not this record, probably because it came out in the mid 90s when I wasn't buying as many new releases, and it wasn't really around on vinyl anyway. I really liked his late 80s, early 90s work; it's raucous and smart and sexy and dangerous and noisy. I like a bit more piss and vinegar in my Nick Cave records, and this album leans heavily into the quieter, more melancholic, ballad material. So, reading reviews of this more 'mature', introspective and sensitive material and hearing a few tracks on the radio suggested that this was not really in my wheelhouse at the time, so I think I let this album slip past me at the time. Indicative of this new approach, I note that Blixa Bargeld appears on only a few tracks on this album (and a lot of the out-takes). Clearly his sturm-und-drang, noisy influence was being sidelined on this record. Blixa scares the shit out of me, but he does bring a real rock and roll edge to whatever he does. Now, I think both Nick and I have mellowed with time, and this is much more to my taste these days. Just recently, I went to see Nick perform solo (accompanied only by Colin Greenwood, from Radiohead, on bass) at the State Theatre during his extended residency in Sydney. It had been about 15 years since I last saw Nick Cave (solo, with a stripped down band, supporting himself as Grinderman) at the Enmore Theatre, a much smaller venue that he had filled for one night only. These days, he sold out a string of ten or more large shows in Sydney over the space of a few weeks. At the Enmore, he was rocking out, but these days, he was just playing piano and singing, leaning towards the softer end of his now extensive catalogue. He can still hold an audience in the palm of his hand with genuine emotion and humour. He is a wonder on stage. The highlight of the night was 'Into Your Arms', where he firmly (but kindly) guided the audience into softly singing the chorus. It was a beautiful moment. This album is, I think, an early indicator of his more mature works. I honestly believe that he has become a poet laureate of grief, sadly through some terrible experiences in his own life. I find the way he speaks about grief, love, loss and humanity both in his music and his blog (https://www.theredhandfiles.com/) touching and eloquent, and I appreciate it more and more. This is the first album where he leans into his emotions, with less character and artifice, although the themes are loss of love, arising from failed relationships where he clearly behaved pretty badly. I think I prefer his more recent material, overall, but this is an important turning point in his career. But it does have 'Into Your Arms' on it. There is an argument that this is Nick Cave's best song (and possibly his most loved). There's a reason he sang this at Michael Hutchence's funeral, there's a reason that a theatre full of people will quietly sing along like a whispered hymn, like a prayer. This song just resonates with people, it operates on a magically human level. It is a song for the ages. Any album that delivers a song like this really must be heard,

Very interesting album, not what I expeected from Nick Cave (or the album cover). Has a very powerful mood.

I wanted to like this, but honestly found the vocals to be so repetitive that it became a tedious listen. The instrumentals were generally strong, but not enough to enjoy listening for an hour. 2.4/5 -> 2/5.

It's as if sad Bowie and sad Cash made jazz....not good.

I had heard some of these songs before, but a very different side of Nick Cave. Standout is "Into My Arms" but lots of great songs. Shout out to "There is a Kingdom" which replaced "Icky Thump" by The White Stripes in the Snyder Cut

(3/5) This all feels like funeral music. I've, personally, had a rough year with multiple deaths around me and more funerals than I care to count or mention in such a short time. This is the music I always anticipate hearing there -- sparse, melancholy and liberally sprinkled with religious words and sad imagery. It's not bad, but after the year I have had (so far!) I can't emotionally deal with this. Cave is ok, the music is ok, and the talent is ok, but I'm not ok. I got about halfway through and just shut it down. '3' because I didn't hate it outright (about half of the album) nor did I love it for the aforementioned reasons.

Our first encounter with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on this 1001 album journey. I first encountered this act when Metallica covered “Loverman” for Garage Inc., however, I never really followed up on listening to much more of their stuff. Hetfield and some other metal guys are fans of Nick Cave I know so it’s a band I’ve always felt like I should give a fair chance to. Excited to dive in and do so now. This album though may not have been the best place to start. I read it is a departure from their regular sound and has a somber vibe throughout. I actually did enjoy it, but there wasn’t much variation to explore. The entire album sat in about the same mood throughout. This makes me curious to see how much of a departure it was when we get to the other entries on this list. There’s four more to go. 3/5

Series Scott Walker Vibes. Pretty dark and broading album. It fely like a heavy blanket on the ears. No uplifting or quick beats; just there.

i'm sad to report i didn't really like this one :( this album felt very Leonard Cohen-esque in the sense that it's basically poetry over like a slow/mid-tempo song played on a single instrument, but honestly most of the songs sounded so similar to me that they blended into each other and it was hard to focus on the poetry because i just kept getting bored. "Green Eyes" where he speaks the lyrics as like an echo after he sings them was sooo cringey i could barely get through the song 😭 like some sort of bad cross between the Inkspots and an amateur poetry open mic reading. the first song was alright though, and at least "West Country Girl" was a bit more interesting melodically

If I wanted to hear good sad songs I would listen to Leonard Cohen. This was just depressing. I know it was his PJ Harvey breakup album, but Jesus, I can see why she left him. Green eyes was just the terrible icing on the horrible rotten cake.

Bad lounge singer on a slow Thursday night

This is the most boring album that I’ve ever been punished with. Every song had the same formula: 1/2 BPM + sad piano + snare + be boring.

When this came up today I thought; 1. How many albums does this fuckin' dude have on the list? 2. Which Nick Cave am I going to get? 3. Do I still have PTSD from listening to The Birthday Party 620 albums ago? A few listens in, for me this is his best album here. Just exactly perfect for Saturday morning coffee and dog walking in the snow. Piano driven tunes that are mellow and consistent throughout. Highly enjoyable. The first 3 I got from Nick could easily be replaced by much better, less esoteric albums. The last 3 are all bordering on masterpieces. I like artists that grow and evolve and he seems to be doing that. Again, a huge thank you to Alex for creating the generator. 38 days into the year and I've gotten 28 albums I had never heard and would not have sought out on my own. This whole project has been a giant discovery of killer tunes. Viva la musica Sonic Voyagers.

Nick is so cool. And by cool I mean I respect so much that he's able to confidently explore so many different vibes. This album is one main tone, but the nuance is so good. It's beautiful. It's simple. It's soulful. If I had to pick a general soundtrack to play behind my life, this is a front runner.

This has been an essential record since I first heard it in the 90s. Very glad to see it here.

Nick Cave possesses the unique ability to create works of insurmountable beauty when faced with great personal tragedies and sadness. In many ways The Boatman’s Call was the first album to truly show this ability in full scale. It was also the album where Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds took the definitive move away from their early post-punk sound and stepped into a new era. The Boatman’s Call deals, in large parts, with Cave’s faith diminishing and taking on a new and more questioning form. It is in his search for answers that Nick Cave is at his best - and this album finds Cave frantically searching for answers like never before.

Profoundly moving, deeply personal, pared back with minimal arrangement, Cave delivers a powerful album, trusting his voice to carry the emotion. An extraordinary artist and whilst not all his albums land this is really special.

This album gives us a more stripped down Nick Cave with the focus clearly on the voice. The album in contemplative and centers around themes of relationships, spirituality, and the loss of both. There is a rawness that makes listening to this album somewhat of a voyeuristic experience. The lyrics are repetitive and obsessive (Black Hair), reflecting the disordered thinking that occurs in the wake of an ended relationship. It is uncomfortable at times to listen to, but it's real, and that is no small feat. The biggest drawback is its length, but it feels appropriate for the ruminating nature of this album.

Amazing album - bleak & soulful.

Im now sad but it hurt good

Gorgeous album. Dark and beautiful

163. The Boatman's Call - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (1997) 8.4.26 Variety: 3 Adequacy: 5 Listenability: 5 Uniqueness: 4 Emotionality: 5 = 4.4 rounded down to a 4 "Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built/ Out of longing great wonders have been willed/ They're only little tears, darling, let them spill" It's felt weird to me on the occasions where we get an later album as the first album to review by an act that that has a lot of entries ( the Beatles White album for example). To give you a tortured metaphor, I might compare the jumping around in time to the plight of Billy Pilgrim from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five. I get more than a little thrown off when I can't really reference the evolution of the artist in any meaningful way, and it's slightly discombobulating especially when the next one comes and we end up going backwards in time, or even skipping forward even further. In this case we get an album that is chronologically pretty mush smack dab in the middle of Nick Cave's career, considering that he started playing in bands in 1973 ( though did not release his first album until 1979). Of the five albums on here ( decently impressive numbers), I'm a little annoyed they left off some of his better, earlier work and threw on two later ones that don't quite make as much sense as other options available. Murder Ballads and Boatman's Call at least would have been on my list. Oh well. No one's perfect, and I find more and more that there does seem to the whiff of recency bias about some of the picks I've seen. By the point that The Boatman's Call came out in 1997, his reputation as the gothic preacherman of the alt-rock scene had been firmly established, and he had been enjoying more than a decade or so of critical acclaim, the commercial acclaim somewhat newly arrived from the last couple of albums. I discovered him right this time when someone loaned me Murder Ballads, and I fell in love with it immediately, and worked my way backwards - grabbing Boatman's Call after it had been out for a while. Those two, along with Tender Prey were in fairly heavy rotation until the The Best of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds came out in '98 and became possibly the most played greatest hits compilation in my collection for some time. It's worth mentioning here ( even though we have not gotten around to any of his stuff yet) that Cave and Tom Waits are intertwined in my musical experience, discovering them both around the same time ( the same person who lent me Murder Ballads also lent me Bone Machine). They come from completely different backgrounds - An American jazz bar piano bum, and an Australian punk rocker, but they both seemed to slowly over the years gravitate towards a similar dark, literate, and stylistically omnivorous method of delivery that sort of began to dovetail into both becoming alt rock elder statesmen, with Waits starting off as more button down and traditional and veering into the avante-garde hobo persona he would adopt, and Cave coming from the opposite end of things beginning firmly as out there in the art punk world as he could be, but also moving towards a similarly more traditional, be-suited, button down persona. They would eventually pass like ships in the night ( never working together to my knowledge) and head off into opposite ends of the spectrum from where they started. Waits a bit more disheveled and experimental, Cave more of a suave lounge lizard who could belt out standards with the best of them, but both still firmly rooted in folk rock, Cave more on the bluesy side, Waits on the jazzier side. This is all to say that they are so intertwined in my mind as two of my musical pillars, that anytime I listen to an album by either of these guys, I'm tempted to remind myself what the other was doing around the same time. So I'll probably continue that thread when anything by the other guy comes up in the list. When this album came out, Cave had just come off of Murder Ballads in '96 ( maybe my favorite of his) and Waits's last release had been The Black Rider in '93 ( underrated imo) and would be heading into Mule Variations in '99 ( a "late career" great work - of which I don't think too many exist). The Boatman's Call is maybe the last full Cave album I listened to regularly, but he's had plenty of great stuff since, which we'll get to eventually. THE TRACKS "Into My Arms" - We start with one of his best, but for anyone coming at it in chronological order, a very stripped down sound for Cave. This is going to be good set dressing for the remainder as we'll be hanging around in these bare, mostly piano filled, halls for much of the run time. A very pretty song, with a great vocal melody that's doubled by the piano, it's got very strong Leonard Cohen vibes ( still fresh in my mind from our recent review of Songs of Love and Hate) with the baritone delivery, and the rumination on things spiritual ( or not) and a romantic love. Stylistically is also has a lot in common with Cohen's "Hallelujah". Cave has made it clear he's a Cohen admirer, and while this is no pastiche, his influence over Cave in general looms large. I'm betting has seen use as either processional song or for the first dance at a LOT of weddings. "Lime Tree Arbour" - Some gospely organ, a deep bass, and some swishy drumming add something of a light touch over top of the jazzier piano, and all in the service of another love song. This time about companionship through suffering. Cave rarely comes across as a comforting presence in his songs, but this is as close as he gets. That solemness is just there as the cosmic background radiation that permeates and surrounds all of his work, and I think partly, songs like this in his catalogue work really well because they are willing to let you feel like at the very least, your head's above water. The deep dark doom and gloom and bad times maybe can't be completely conquered, but they can be endured, especially with someone to help you tread those waters. "People Ain't No Good" - A slow shuffling waltz time number, just as pretty as anything before it so far, but this time an ode ( maybe a funeral march?) to disillusionment and misanthropy. At this point, one might be tempted to ask "Who hurt you, Nick?" I get it, the mode he's working in is very much not about any sort of joy, or at least it's not about the obvious ones. But even in a song like this, the beautiful window dressing says so much. I'd point to those last few verses when the violin hits and the song moves into almost hymn territory, and there's plenty of beauty and wonder to be found in the lyrics. They're just countermanded by the chorus, which to me, seems to be on conversation with the verses. Maybe I'm misreading things though. It's a sad, dark room, but with very faint touches of light shining out from under the crack in the door. "Brompton Oratory" - The Casio-keyboard preset rhythm here is supposed to be pretty jarring I think, and the synth ( or processed organ maybe?) gives this one an almost parodic version of a church service, where one can imagine this as the inner monologue of someone maybe kneeling at prayer while his mind runs crazy with distraction of a missed lover. Instrumentally, it kind of reminds me of a Beck song played at 1/2 speed. This is full of elements that should not work together, but still hit for me. "There Is a Kingdom" - Instrumentally there are very strong echoes of Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" on this one. And fittingly, it's a perfect example of Cave's brand of secular religiosity ( religious secularism?), with more worshipful imagery and church hymn vibes. He's steeped in all the trappings of Christianity, but wants to apply the symbology and reverential style to decidedly non-religious subject matter. Faith and ritual and belief, but focused inward and with the self as the subject here I think. If some of his earlier work could be considered to be more full of fire and brimstone, biblical imagery, with a cynical bent, then this here is New Testament Nick Cave, all philosophical and maybe could be seen as seeking some truths, rather than digging them up out of a moldy grave. "(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?" - This one starts off a bit more uncertainly, with the song itself framed as a question, and full of questioning and doubt, and even though it's in the Romantic ( big R) mode, there's a stark realism and realization in the lines like "The stars will explode in the sky/ But they don't, do they?/ Stars have their moment and then they die." And all of this tied up in a very pretty melody. "Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?" - Another beautiful number in a shuffling waltz time. This one a bit more atmospheric and reminiscent of the pitch black material on Murder Ballads with the rumination n death and dying and full of "Grim reapers and skeletons" and what seems like hospice care imagery. It's a little bit southern gothic with the farm and dark carnival bits, and we're left with much more of a short story in song form than anything else so far on the album. Desperation, despair, despondency, and just a hint of destitution can all be found within the confines of this doleful little dirge. "West Country Girl" - Cave steers the wagon right into old school English folk territory here, with the menacing instrumentation providing the horsepower, and we get Martyn P. Casey's massive, threatening bass sound to help us keep time to the... loving I guess? description of the narrator's true love. It would all be very sweet, and oddly charming but for how oppressive and full of peril the playing is and how full of an almost sly sense of the dangerous that Cave's delivery gives off. Whoever this woman is, you probably don't want to get on her bad side, as lovely as she seems. Awesome shit right here. "Black Hair" - We get some great Warren Ellis ( not that Warren Ellis) accordion playing here, and more of a spoken word approach from Cave, again about the same "heart-faced" woman ( pretty sure this is based on PJ Harvey, of whom we'll see much more of on the list) and her many, many lovely features, but mainly that one. Not the most lyrically diverse song on the album, and as nice as the overall effect is, it's a bit unflatteringly obsessive in the way that other stuff on here is not. Still though... I like it quite a bit. "Idiot Prayer" - A catchy little number about someone facing their final moments and seeming to hedge their bets about the afterlife, if it should exist. This is all presented in a very calm, casual manner and from the mention of "victims" and some sort of awful fate for his late (possibly complicit) partner, this seems almost like a replay in subject matter of the much more fiery and panicked "Mercy Seat" from Tender Prey, which is much more explicitly about a man scrambling, confused, and scared to his death by electric chair. If this dude's about to be executed he seems pretty accepting. While "Mercy Seat" is the way better track, this one is still pretty damned good. "Far from Me" - The whole cycle of a relationship from the birth of new love to the death of coldness and emotional detachment. It's lovingly presented, and shows some of that old Nick Cave mean streak in the pettiness of the dismissive and condescending notes that all but the first verse end on. Heartbreak and regret with a side of anger served on a bed of resentment. "Green Eyes" - Damn. So close. The only song on here that doesn't hit for me, it feels like a slow motion country song, and would have still been the least of the songs on here even without the annoying overdubbed mirror vocals. A pretty glaring misstep in my opinion, but I can't say he didn't know exactly what he was going for. This seems for all intents and purposes like it was meant to invoke "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" where Elvis ( arguably more successfully) pulls off the same trick, but feels almost more like a parody of it. It never feels clumsy, or ill-measured. I just did not like the effect. HIGHLIGHTS - "Into My Arms" - "Lime Tree Arbour" - "People Ain't No Good" - "Brompton Oratory" - "There Is a Kingdom" - "(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?" - "Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?" - "West Country Girl" - "Black Hair" - "Idiot Prayer" - "Far from Me" MIDLIGHTS - LOWLIGHTS - "Green Eyes" FINAL THOUGHTS Just as great as I remember it, and very glad I had a reason to revisit it. This things is chock full of satisfying, pretty, well crafted, minimalistic piano balladry. Cave infuses a lot of emotion in his work, but its a low, serious energy that I think can get misread as coldness or even menace. I think of him less as slowly swimming shark, and more of a great big old wise, but depressed tortoise who has maybe gone off his SSRIs. I focused a lot more on the lyrics and general vibe than I usually do because I think he's one of the lyricists who makes it a worthwhile game. Instrumentally, there's usually not much to criticize on most of his albums because he smartly surrounds himself with top tier players, and his ear for melody and ( what I imagine to be) his expert level ability to self edit, and present nothing less than thoroughly worked out ideas puts him up with other greats of the late 20th century in that regard ( Tom Waits, Tori Amos, Elliott Smith, Aimee Mann, PJ Harvey are amongst his peers who all seem walk the path first tread by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed and Patti Smith). This isn't my favorite piece of work by Cave, but it's still pretty great, and I think maybe the most accessible starting point for new listeners. If you liked what you heard, definitely go forward, but maybe sample the greatest hits before venturing too far backwards as it gets a lot more ragged, and theatrical, and downright mean. Dude's been crafting bangers at least since he started up the Bad Seeds, and if you go back far enough ( maybe too far) the Birthday Party ( represented by exactly one album - the correct choice btw) stuff will land you squarely in the cynical, nihilistic territory that the Boatman's Call finally sees him crawling out of completely. He still has to shake some of the mud off though, so it's not going to be sunshine and roses. This is a great choice for the list, and I'm glad there will be much more Cave stuff to revisit, but I do wonder if the run of 80s - early 90s would have been better represented than with Henry's Dream, fine as it is. Oh well. I'm complaining about an embarrassment of riches now. I will end by saying that Cave is definitely an acquired taste, especially the further back you go, but I think even if you don't vibe with his sound, find him too morose, or self-serious, or dark - you should at least dislike it in an interesting sort of way. I can't imagine anyone coming away from any of his stuff with the opinion that it was a low effort affair, or poorly crafted. Even that one stinker of a track is not true garbage. There's a reasonably artistic conceit, and it's an admirable swing, it just doesn't land with as much confidence and I wish he'd played it safer for the closer. Than one large blemish, along with what could be argued was a pretty limited palette he was painting with, keep this one just hair from the true big leagues. If I were in a cheating mood, I'd replace it with any of the bonus tracks from the re-issue or the B-sides collection that has a lot more interesting tracks from these sessions, the best among them being the following: - "Come Into My Sleep" - "I Do, Dear, I Do" - "Opium Tea" - "Sheep May Safely Graze" PLAYLIST ALTERATIONS - Lose that last one FURTHER LISTENING - Tim Hardin 2 by Tim Hardin - Songs of Love and Hate by Leonard Cohen - Conway Savage (EP) by Conway Savage - B-Sides & Rarities by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Is This Desire? by PJ Harvey - I See a Darkness by Bonnie "Prince" Billy - From the Choirgirl Hotel by Tori Amo - Bubblegum by Mark Lanegan

Fantastic, dark, gorgeous soundscapes and his awesome voice.

This is the kind of guy I always thought was an actor or something before being a musician. This was actually really good. Interesting lyrics. Not obnoxiously contrarian. It was just cool. Best way to describe it. Want to hear again and dive into lyrics. I’ll even give it 4 stars. Some parts reminded me of Bowie.

After Murder Ballads, this is a very calm, somber departure. Marking Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis’ elevation to a regular member of The Bad Seeds, whose contributions can be heard in the quieter moments. A series of love songs, deliberations and thoughts put down with minimal backing, letting Cave’s voice shine through. Opening track ‘Into My Arms’ is just beautiful, and one of my favourite songs to sing along with in the car (baritone ftw). Other key tracks ‘Are You The One That I’ve Been Waiting For?’, ‘People Ain’t No Good’ and ‘West Country Girl’ (reportedly about PJ Harvey). A beautiful album, highly recommended for a quiet, thoughtful Sunday afternoon.

One of two NC that I own, and a fine collection of moody piano ballads if that's your thing; most seem to be post-PJ breakup catharsis. "Into My Arms" is quite clever if you view it as tongue-in-cheek, but there's enough god bothering on here to make me now question this analysis. Hey, there's also a Shrek song, so I'll award a low 4 for the highlights.

The Boatman’s Call ‘This useless fucker with his twinkling cunt’ I remember loving Into My Arms when it came out, I think I bought the single, and it takes me right back to A-level mocks in Jan ‘97. I don’t think I heard the full album until much later, when I was a bit older and more open to Nick Cave. I love the piano based romantic solemnity and many if not all of the songs are brilliant; Into My Arms, the organ shuffle of Lime Tree Arbor, the atmospheric brilliance of Brompton Oratory, the lovelorn There is a Kingdom, Where Do We Go Now?, West Country Girl and the superb Idiot Prayer. The only issue is that the relentless mournfulness of all these songs together can become a bit much, especially towards the end of the 2nd half. Taken in isolation they are great, but as collection it does tend to a feel of heaviness and unmoving stolidness. Still it is a very fine album of anguished romantic piano balladry with some truly brilliant songs, but the unrelenting nature of the songs probably does make it a 4 rather than a 5. 🛶🛶🛶🛶 Playlist submission: Into My Arms

I liked this. The songs were a bit same same and - to me - VERY quintessential Nick Cave. But it was a pleasant listen. [Brave of him to casually throw around "c**t" in a mid-90s release.]

We both were surprised by how much we enjoyed this compared with other Nick Cave albums

I just tend to navigate away from lyrics that rub against the poems that resonate my Spirit. Nick Cave, though, has done a wonderful job. I mean, so much soul and he's really true to himself.

The wind in the trees is a whisperin. Charon (the boatman) Calls… Is he calling for thee? Nick is a somber romantic from the pulpit on this album. Great piano work, strange lyrics, a slow Sunday morning listen. (Although I listened on a Wednesday afternoon.) Lime Tree Arbor and Idiot Prayer top the bill. I’m betting West Country Girl has Black Hair. I feel bad for Nick’s girlfriend(s). The boatman, he is gone (4.1*s)

Funereal, which I am into

I’ve got a lot of respect for Nick Cave, but man…I can’t really get into his music the way that a lot of people do, which is a shame because I can see why they love it.

I love Nick Cave's music. He is one of the most influential artists to me personally and my own poetry. So naturally an album that focuses on his lyrical skills will turn out perfect right? Not really... I like so much this album has to offer but when compared to "Let Love In" or "Murder Ballads" or even his other "love" inspired Piano Rock album "The Good Son"... I am much more uninterested here. I love many songs here and a couple are some of my favourite songs ever but when looking at the album as a whole, I am rather disappointed. But as "bad" as this sounds, it is still a really good release with many great moments that really make me sob. One of these incredible moments is 'Into My Arms' which also opens the album. It is like most songs here, mainly driven by piano and the incredible lyrics Nick has to offer. In fact this is one of his best love songs ever. It is so beautifully written with a chorus that is simply but so effective and on top of that are the lyrics that have a perfect mix between christian references and universally divinity as well as a sentimental undertone that results into something that I simply call perfection. With 'Lime Tree Arbour' there is not only some Rock but also some Jazz mixed. The song also names the albums title in its lyrics. It is another beautiful song that blends the melancholic sound with romantic but also magical notes into perfection yet again. I also love the vocal performance a lot. And yet again, 'People Ain't No Good' is another incredible song that has a very Chamber Pop feel song and is also featured in Shrek!!! It is lovely both in lyrical matter but also in musical. But I do not think that it's perfect. It's a little too long with too many uninteresting moments. The chorus, although great, sadly doesn't save it from being "just" incredible. 'Brompton Oratory' gets weirdly trippy and ambient. It is a much more interesting and magical listen all throughout and the organ keyboard adds the ambience that I was talking about and it adds so much to the experience that this song is. If only this had the lyrics that 'People Ain't No Good' had because than it would've been perfect. The more uplifting 'There Is a Kingdom' returns to the magical thematic that the was there before but it now features my favourite chorus on the album. It is such a great hook that always returns to my mind when think of the album. It is a pure bliss to listen to this song. There are just a couple of moments that hold me back from giving this a perfect score but it is very close. Another really catchy song is '(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?' that returns to the sentimental sound from the start but even more heart-wrenching when he sings the chorus. This is another absolute masterpiece with perfect lyrics and instruments all throughout. 'Where Do We Go Now but Nowhere?' starts the albums second half with one of its darkest songs. The mix between Country and Goth Rock together with the Chamber Pop and the dark lyrics make one of the most atmospheric songs on the album. And while I think that if he did this song in his true Punk Blues fashion, it would've been better, this is still a great way to do it even if it looses itself after a while. The Gothic Country sound is extended even more on 'West Country Girl' and while it is a very interesting but weirly fitting way for Nick Cave to deliver his music, I am not very fond of this song. I just don't really care for it much as it just doesn't really have the edge that I like so much about his darker stuff or the heart-wrenching lyrics that I like about his love poems. It's cute and good but not really more. Similar fate with 'Black Hair': just not interesting enough even if the accordion does add some nice atmosphere. The folkier approach is quite fitting with the rest of the albums styles but it ultimately fails to project much of what makes Nick Cave great in the first place. It's a solid but boring track and he could've cut it off the album without me missing it. With 'Idiot Prayer' there is a slight resurrection of the albums greatest moments. It has good lyrics and very solid songwriting but it in the end fails to make another great song, just a really good one. 'Far From Me' is way too long, right of the bat. It feels streched the moment that the chorus ends the first time. There just isn't much stuff here that makes this great. The lyrics... that's it. It's a very average song with an average delivery and a couple of good moments with the instruments. It's an okay song but nothing that elevates the albums quality. The albums closing track 'Green Eyes' might be a nice ending to the album but not a great song. Again, it is average like most the second half has to offer. It's bluesy, has a nice melody and interesting spoken word additions on top of the vocals. Cute, but not really interesting. favourites: Into My Arms, Lime Tree Arbour, (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?, There Is a Kingdom least favourites: Black Hair, Far From Me, Green Eyes Rating: light 8 https://rateyourmusic.com/~Emil_ph for more ratings, reviews and takes

Beautiful, just beautiful. Stripped back, melodic and elegant. Music to make you weep. Heavy hearted yet light and just hushed tones to embrace you. Cave’s vocals are extraordinary and really grab you. Cannot rate this album highly enough. Absolutely love it.

The Boatman's Call is the tenth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 1997. The album is entirely piano-based, alternately somber and romantic in mood, making it a marked departure from the bulk of the band's post-punk catalogue. The Boatman's Call remains one of the most critically acclaimed releases of Nick Cave's career. Cave performed "Into My Arms" at the 1997 funeral of INXS vocalist Michael Hutchence, an old friend from Cave's youth, and requested that the TV cameras be shut off for his performance out of respect for Hutchence.

I've had very little exposure to Nick Cave, but enough to enough to form an opinion and have an idea what I was in for. Still, this was more melancholy and brooding than I expected, and can best be described at a droll monotonous dirge exploring the intrinsic beauty of life, and inevitability of death. Sometimes brooding, sometimes boring, it's an eloquently drab track that lasts 52 minutes, with a few sighs and pauses here and there to catch its breath. I'll freely admit Cave is good at what he does and I didn't hate it, but it doesn't rise to a second listen on a sunny August day.

Standouts Into My Arms Are You The One I've Been Waiting For?

Damned to indifference to most of Nick Cave’s work, though sympathetic to the man, I find this crooner’s record more engaging. Murder and Christ, his crutches, still feature, but “People Ain’t No Good” has stick, “(Are you) the one…” caught me singing a little, and there’s some concrete detail here to linger over - smell, funnily. “West Country Girl” is fun, but not strong enough to disengage from the knowledge that it’s about PJ Harvey. More formless, “Black Hair” succeeds. He's caged by his tropes, and this record has me wondering if he’s best embracing his sentimentality with his set dressing of knives and skeletons - he’s pleasing when he’s a shaky Sinatra.

Felt like 1 long song

A little self-serving. Their spotify about us is hilariously self-important.

This album felt like being stuck in a half empty, dimly lit piano bar while someone reads depressing poetry you didn’t ask to hear. Gloomy, slow, monotonous, and you can’t wait to pay the tab and leave.

Nick Cave is sort of a "pick me Christian" in that most of his songs are about God, the Devil, Jesus, such and such a biblical story, etc etc etc. But he also swears and sings about sex and is "too cool" to just be a Christian rock singer -- he's "not like all the other Christians," which is a doubly annoying persona to take on. A lot of the lyrics here are clever by a half, rotating all the way back around to being stupid (e.g. "In a colonial hotel we fucked up the sun / And then we fucked it down again"). I like a lot of the musicians he works with (Nick Cave is probably the worst part of this Nick Cave album) and I maybe would have liked this album more if I'd heard it at a different time/place of my life. But on this listen, I mostly cringed and rolled my eyes.

Nick Cave is so boring. How many more of these do I have left ....? 2/5

Green Eyes Jump Scare 1.8

I admit, I didn’t listen to the whole thing. It’s not that it was horrible, but it was just so incredibly meh that I didn’t see the point. One thing that WAS good about the album was that his voice made me picture him singing in this sad nightclub completely lacking in swank. He’s swinging the microphone by its cord and running his fingers through his greasy hair. His shirt is unbuttoned enough that you can see his taco meat sticking out the top. There’s a middle aged woman in the front row dabbing her neck and chest with a napkin.

What it lacks in groove it makes up for with no melody

A little boring. Sweet and sentimental but not the Nick Cave I enjoy most of the time.

I've tried to get into Nick Cave a few times but it's never grabbed me. To be quite frank, I don't think this is going to change that, as I'm finding it a little boring. It's almost entirely a showcase for Nick Cave's voice with minimal piano, guitars and drums backing him and I don't actually like his voice that much. It's fine, I don't hate it, but I don't like it enough to really enjoy it being front and centre. That serious lack of variety makes it feel like a slog. I found Far From Me to be the only time there was any sort of switch-up as the instrumentation picked up the intensity a little bit I agree with another comment on here that said this feels like an Oscar-winning movie that people feel that they have to like, but of course people like what they like. 2.5 Highlights: Far From Me

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Can’t believe this guy sings the Peaky Blinders Theme song

Ist einfach nicht meins. Ich finds fad und kann das ganze album nichtmal hören

4/10. I had the soundtrack for Shrek 2 on CD in my car for a while, and almost always skipped "People Ain't No Good" because it was so damn long and mopey. And this album was a good deal longer than that song. Lyrically I don't mind it, but it's just not fun to listen to.

I like Nick Cave when he rocks, but I found this balladeering album pretentious crap (I feel un-australian saying that!). Into my arms is lovely, the rest of it I could do without

The album started alright but then deteriorated from there. I'm glad the closer was Green Eyes. If that had appeared anywhere else I doubt I'd have finished the album. Absolutely dire.

two weeks ago when i listened to nick cave's "abattoir blues" i primarily noted that it was boring, repetitive, pretentious, and i disliked cave's transparently conservative views in his songs. in this album seven years recorded seven years prior, 'ole jesus boy lays it on even thicker with even worse singing. there's some decent piano instrumentation, but it's astounding how off key he is for seemingly every line. i feel like unpleasant vocals are a particularly common gripe of mine (given that i generally prefer a woman's singing and this list is absurdly male), but this genuinely nails on chalkboard tier. the way cave talks about women on this is so gross. get a job and stay away from her, weirdo. misogyny moment.

Random thoughts: * Well, my trepidation about seeing another Nick Cave album was warranted and this album delivered in the worst way. * I won't be listening to this again. I made it through only because I was writing my other reviews. * Green Eyes-the album closer-sucks. I hate the singing with the same spoken word lyrics over the singing. What a terrible gimmick. * However, I think this line from Green Eyes describes how I feel about Nick Cave: "This useless old fucker with his twinkling cunt"

Couldn’t give less of a shit about this lame ass dude and his voice

Second Nick Cave album I've had and damn, this one was great. Very chill and can't stand how much I love his voice. A+++

Super!

I will put 5 for this one, as I've heard a lot about Nick Cave (especially from one friend of mine who's a big fan), still I did not understand Nick Cave's music for a long perioud of time. But this one changed a lot - it is magnificent!

One of my favorite of his albums, not a weak song on it. It's hard to pick and choose but Lime Tree Arbor and Into My arms stand out.

The best nap I've ever had was in the backseat of a car driving into NYC while this played on headphones and if that sounds like a bad review then you haven't had a nap that good. Sliding in and out of consciousness while Cave plays piano and croons and buildings tower above you is a perfect experience.

This is probably my favourite cave. Sombre, intense. Starts so strong

I’ve always admired Nick Cave more than I’ve loved him. The early records are astonishing feats of imagination, but they can also feel like performances in the grand theatrical sense. The biblical fury, the Southern Gothic, the murder ballads; Cave rarely entered a room quietly. Then I reached The Boatman’s Call and found him doing something infinitely more difficult. He shuts up. This isn’t really a breakup album. It’s an album about transition. Specifically, it’s about the bewildering moment when someone you love has already crossed into a new reality while you’re still trying to understand how yesterday’s world disappeared overnight. What impressed me most is that Cave refuses almost every easy explanation. He briefly blames himself. He briefly blames her. He questions God, destiny, human nature and memory. None of them quite fit. Every song is another attempt to walk around the same crater, hoping one angle will finally make sense of it. That’s why I found “Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere?” so devastating. It’s not mourning the relationship so much as the collapse of possibility. All those futures that existed yesterday simply vanish. The grief isn’t only for what was; it’s for everything that now can never be. Crucially, Cave never turns anyone into a villain. “People Ain’t No Good” initially sounds like a cynical slogan, but by the end it has quietly dismantled its own thesis. People aren’t wicked so much as limited. Relationships don’t always fail because somebody is monstrous. Sometimes two flawed people simply can’t continue. That’s a much sadder conclusion. Musically, the restraint is extraordinary. This is the same Bad Seeds that once sounded capable of bringing down industrial buildings. Blixa Bargeld, the existentially suffering German from Kollaps, is somehow transformed into a master of understatement. Mick Harvey arranges with astonishing confidence, Thomas Wydler barely disturbs the surface, and everyone seems to ask the same question before playing a note: “Does this song actually need me?” Usually the answer is “only just.” The result is an album that seems to breathe. At one point I realised it sounded like an old wooden boat under load. The arrangements creak almost imperceptibly, like timbers flexing against the swell. Nothing is rigid. Everything yields slightly. For a record called The Boatman’s Call, it feels entirely appropriate. There are beautiful formal ideas throughout. “West Country Girl” has the air of an English folk ballad, built as a litany rather than a conventional narrative. “Idiot Prayer” speaks in the language of a condemned man on his way to the gallows, praying not because he expects an answer but because silence would be even worse. Then “Green Eyes” quietly pulls off one of the loveliest production ideas on the record. Cave overlays a spoken reading of a verse on top of the simultaneously sung version. It feels like an iteration of the old Elvis spoken-song device, but internalised. The singing and speaking aren’t alternatives; they’re two states of consciousness existing at once. That restraint extends to every corner of the record. Nobody announces their cleverness. Even the most sophisticated ideas arrive almost apologetically. By the end, Cave hasn’t solved the breakup. He hasn’t discovered the meaning of suffering or reached some hard-earned spiritual certainty. He’s simply managed to narrate what happened. The relationship has ceased to be an emergency and become a story. There’s something deeply moving about that. I came expecting the Cave of grand gestures and operatic emotion. Instead I found an artist discovering that whispering, or sometimes simply speaking, can carry infinitely further.

Probably my favourite Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album. Contender with Skeleton Tree. The production, the lyrics, the vibe. “Into My Arms” is one of Nick Caves best songs. 5/5 for me.

Nick Cave earns himself his first 5 on Boatman’s Call for me. I can hear so many elements of Cave and co that i love in this record, some of it is his best work (Into My Arms, People Just Ain’t No Good) and some of it points at his much later work such as Ghosteen and bits of Skeleton Tree. I love calm Cave.

This is one of those instant five star records. A personal favourite album by one of my favourite musicians. It shows Nick Caves introspective side and his ability to make ‘small’ songs. Hot take: Are you the one that I’ve been waiting for is a superior lovesong to Into my arms

Beautiful

This is Cave at his most stripped-back—just piano, space, and brutally honest songwriting. The storytelling isn’t grand or theatrical; it’s intimate, almost uncomfortably so. Songs like Into My Arms and People Ain’t No Good don’t build, they unfold, line by line, carrying a quiet emotional weight that really lingers. As someone who enjoys a bit of Steven Wilson-style melancholy, this hits a similar nerve—but through minimalism rather than atmosphere. It’s all about what’s not played as much as what is. Not an album for every mood, but when it clicks, it’s quietly devastating.

I guess this is the main album people think of when they think of Nick Cave but I haven’t really listened to it much compared to his later albums. I’m sure this is one I’ll come to love upon further listenings so I’ll just go ahead and give it 5.

Ein riesiges Album!

Arguably his best album; certainly my favourite. Operatic

“I don’t believe in an interventionist god” is one hell of way to get my attention at the start of an album. And then to end with a raw poem set to song, what beautiful bookends to a haunting album.

Amazing that all it takes for Nick Cave to make a great album is to slow everything down and bring in more heartfelt and emotional lyrics. His vocal style fits nicely with piano-heavy melodies, and there's a depth to the songs that is such a nice change of pace from the rest of his catalog. Honestly makes me wish the rest of his discography was more stylistically similar, I'd enjoy it all a lot more. Top tracks: Into My Arms, People Ain't No Good, Far from Me

Another reminder that I’m “starting to really like Nick Cave” years old.

I really dig his voice and any singer who sounds like it. As for the music, it's expectedly depressing (which I like) and unexpectedly religious (which I dislike). Still, even at their most spiritual, the lyrics are pretty good and, now that I know the story behind the album's creation, I definitely need to relisten someday.

Длинная-предлинная баллада от Кейва.

One of the biggest surprises of this project for me is how much I like Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. This spoke to my inner emo kid in ways actual emo music never could.

5/5 Nick Cave’s finest

I absolutely love this album. One of my all time favorites. I'm not sure what this says about me, but I can listen to it over and over. "People Ain't No Good" is a particular favorite. I have complained about other albums that are so spare (Nick Drake) but for reasons that I can't explain this gets me. Feelings. I don't know if everyone needs to listen to this before they die, but I certainly do. Love this mopey shit! Right near the top of my personal 5 star list. (Better than Sgt Peppers yesterday, ha! What can you do?)