The Boatman’s Call

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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. Originally released in 1997, gone were the menacing, troubled tunes of yore; instead, here was a selection of graceful, minimal, melancholic numbers that saw Cave reflect on spirituality, loves past and present, and almost atoning for past indiscretions. This is as faultless a pressing as I have on either ordinary vinyl (covering over 4 decades) or 180g vinyl, which only enhances enjoyment of this wonderful set.

But few could have guessed that Cave would bookend this period with what remains his most tender and honest record; a naked account of love and loss created in a period of personal and stylistic transition. People Ain't No Good" is an especial work of genius - without meaning to give too much away, the last verse in particular is both devastating and (almost) funny in its bleakness. Into My Arms is a love song so perfect you wonder why any other composition of its kind bothers to go up against a ballad that all others should rightfully refer to as ‘Sir’. Many of the lyrics seem to reflect on Cave's personal relationships and spiritual yearnings at the time of writing.

Stripped down and grown up--though still ghoulish and grave--Cave the storyteller has turned into something of a vampire Bruce Springsteen. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The album’s dwelling on the fragility of love also collided with Cave’s similarly complicated relationship with religion. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. As the 1980s drew to a close Cave was deeply addicted to heroin and writing some of his darkest songs yet.

Having collaborated previously on the Murder Balladsfolk-cover ‘Henry Lee’, the pair had hit it off on the video shoot for that very song – an erotic, bare-bones scene which found the two-singers wrapped around one-another, locked deep in lustful stares and lyrical whispers. These ruptures in his life would not only influence the lyrical direction of this next album, but would completely remould The Bad Seed’s musical role, stripping them back to a level of restraint and sparseness which, at this point, was new and scary territory.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. and " Black Hair" have invisibly possessed my sub-conscious - I wake up with these tunes and lyrics in head. Celebrated as the band's most starkly moving work, key tracks include the single 'Into My Arms' and 'People Ain't No Good', featured in the soundtrack to Shrek 2. His lyrics were now thoroughly soaked in misanthropic themes and often documented characters in moments of bleak depravity or despair. 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 up to that point.