Nocturama [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Album Description
2003 album from one of the most distinctive voices in music today. Nick Cave's 'Nocturama' is set to take his music to a whole new level. This Japanese edition includes three bonus tracks, 'Shoot Me Down', 'Swing Low' & 'Everything Must Converge'. Featuring the lead off single 'Bring It On', 'Nocturama' is Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' twelfth studio album & the follow up to 2001's brilliant 'No More Shall We Part'. Copy Control CD. Mute/Virgin.

Tracks:

Wonderful Life
He Wants You
Right Out Of Your Hand
Bring It On
Dead Man In My Bed
Still In Love
There Is A Town
Rock Of Gibraltar
She Passed By My Window
Babe, I'm On Fire

Amazon.com

After 2001's tender and tormented No More Shall We Part, Nick Cave's Nocturama sounds like the work of a madman spinning desperately and beautifully out of control. Since the Birthday Party called it quits in 1983, Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds have reframed the Party's cranky and disturbing post-punk to encompass sad blues, literary nihilism, and a kind of serenity; witness Shall We Part, and 1997's The Boatman's Call. Those qualities are still present on Nocturama, most notably in the brokenhearted violin that winds through "Right Out of Your Hand" and "She Passed by My Window." But Cave's arrangements embrace a range of styles and textures. The 14-minute-plus noise explosion of "Babe, I'm on Fire" and the dark, wide-open pop of "Bring It On" are looser and rougher than anything since at least 1994's Let Love In. This makes Nocturama feel messy, unpredictable, and even a little dangerous--qualities Cave's music hasn't had in far too long. --Matthew Cooke

Album Description

The twelfth Bad Seeds album Nocturama displays a renewed strength of purpose within the band, and is marked by an immediacy of recording technique and thematic diversity. The sessions took place in early 2002 when the band decided to use free time on an Australian tour to try out new material. They ended up learning and recording the album in a week. Epitaph. 2003.

Customer Reviews:

Not your average Bad Seeds ... but amazing.......2007-04-17

I freely admit that I'm on the mellower side of most Nick fans - I love the man for his lyrical brilliance and his innovations, not for his songs that sound like he's playing the guitar with his teeth. But I really think this album is the next logical step in Nick's progression, and it strikes so many chords within me personally. Murder Ballads was my favourite Nick album until I found this, and just ... WOW.

The album starts out with "Wonderful Life," which is one of the most amazing alt-rock songs I've heard in years, with its dark lyrics and the persistent piano throughout. There are low points - "Babe, I'm On Fire" frankly bores me, and songs like "Right Out Of Your Hand" and "Still In Love" are a little bland. But for every miss, there's a startling bull's eye. "He Wants You" is aching and gorgeous in the way that "Brompton Oratory" pulls me, and songs like "Bring it On" and "Dead Man In My Bed" are a little crunchier, a little rockier. "Rock of Gibraltar" is easily my favourite song, though that might be because it's somewhat personal to me. Still. The piano is what kills me, and it's what has kept Nocturama in my player on constant repeat.

For those of you who like The Birthday Party and Cave pre-LET LOVE IN, this isn't for you. If you're a fan of the man and his more mature work, then get this, and fast. You won't regret it.

solid Cave that's a pleasure to listen to.......2006-12-01

Nick Cave is, of course, legend, but I wonder sometimes if such following is at times rather stifling. Compared to other albums, _Nocturama_ is without doubt a little clean-cut (I was inspired to that comment by the profile shot of Cave on the cover, his lack of chin quite distinctive). And I think some of the nay-saying on this album stems from those who would prefer that Cave and the Seeds simply keep doing what they like.

There aren't the clearly disturbing tones of work that has sealed his legendary status, though "Dead Man in My Bed" and "Babe, I'm on Fire" are knee-numbing sonic assaults, and I will freely admit to an earlier reviewer that tracks like "Rock of Gibraltar" are pretty abyssmal, but I have to credit this album for songs like "Bring It On" and "Wonderful Life," which keep happily popping up in my iTunes mix. Maybe a little more standard than other Cave stuff, but even if so, they are solid tracks that give me a little charge when they play.

No doubt, some of Cave's notoriety is for making dissonance in sound and tone an art form, but some of these tracks reaffirm that he makes the sounds he does not because of a lack of ability, for when the man wants to bring it all together, he does so without stutter. I'll keep playing my favorites on this album for a long time.

Not bad from an outsider's perspective.......2006-03-06

It seems that most of the reviews I've read of this album - most of which have been fairly negative, or at least somewhat indicative of a certain level of disappointment - have been written from the clear perspective of fans of Nick Cave, or at least people who have previously been impressed with his earlier masterpieces. I've seen a lot about this being "mediocre compared to" and, even more, the use of the phrase "treading water", and it's possible this is the case. Being historically familiar with Cave and the Birthday party, but never having heard more than a track off of a few of his later records (specifically Boatman's Call and Lyre of Orpheus), I feel somewhat priveleged to be one of the few reviewers here who has heard Nocturama (which I bought based on its inclusion in the Mojo Collection book) fully objectively, but nevertheless my feelings aren't too far removed from those of my peers.

I was enchanted with this record upon first listen, particularly from the gorgeously gloomy opening track, "Wonderful Life", which sounds exactly as I would've imagined Nick Cave does, but softer. It's enchanting in the same late-night, pseudo-occult way that Tom Waits is, and all seven minutes compose what remains one of the most impressive tracks on the album. And it's true, all but three tracks follow this slow, brooding and occasionally beautiful template. Most work, at least partially, and I'm particularly fond of "He Wants You" (which is Cohenesquely lovely, and that second chorus note Cave hits sends me), and to a lesser degree the pretty "Right Out Of Your Hand". Nevertheless, this languid and tranquil approach proves a little monotonous around the second half, as Cave drags lyrics not always deserving of such attention over seemingly formless melodies, only to arrive at a mere sliver of a chorus - witness "Still In Love", the vaguely Nine Inch Nails-sounding "There Is A Town", and the short, bare-bones "She Passed By My Window", all acceptable, none terribly riveting.

The heavier tracks, nevertheless, are just about everything they're made out to be. "Bring It On" is a beautiful, dramatic centerpiece for the first half, sounding vaguely like Achtung Baby-era U2 but nevertheless proving as gothically effective as everything that surrounds it. This is largely due to the talents of the Bad Seeds, which are unquestionable throughout the album, and Nick himself, a marvelous vocalist whose somewhat convoluted lyrics can weigh a record like this down if they're read on their own. History goes that Nocturama was written in a very short period of time, and that loose verve the band brings to all of the tracks fuels it more than the quality of the songs they're playing.

Of the two other, more vicerally hard-rocking tracks, "Dead Man In My Bed" is a tad silly lyrically (granted, probably intentionally), but otherwise ominous and driving enough to qualify as an excellent way to spend four-and-a-half minutes. There's a delightful, raw power to this and its counterpart, the fourteen-minute closer "Babe I'm On Fire" that everybody singles out, and it's a lot more fun to hear Cave and his band having a great time with an alright, upbeat song than struggling to create an atmosphere with an alright, lethargic one. "Babe I'm On Fire" remains my favorite track on the album, even after having read all 38 (not 43 or 42) verses, some of which bring the slightest semblances of winces to the corners of my mouth ("the poor Pakistani/with his lamb Bhirriani"? Dylanesque maybe, but I've never been quite so subtly bothered by any of Blonde On Blonde's tossed-off lyrical asides). The group holds its terrific own throughout, particularly Thomas Wydler, keeping a steady, manic beat with inhuman consistency for well over ten minutes (an accomplishment which brings to mind Can's "Halleluwah"). Again, Nick's striking vocalizations of sometimes questionable lyrics - and sometimes brilliant ones - drive this one home, and I'm never bored once, which has never happened to me with a Pink Floyd track. Even if Nocturama is not a great album per se, "Babe I'm On Fire" is indeed a marked achievment, and it does make everything that led up to it seem more than necessary.

Overall, Nocturama was very worth my time, and a fair introduction to Nick Cave - one that will probably make his better albums seem far more impressive by comparison. I'd like to give it a 3.5, maybe more realistically a 3.25, but in increments of stars, three seems most appropriate to how I feel about it. The seams show, some songs merely do not succeed at sticking in the craw or sending me with genius, but there are shards of genius lying all over this record - and more than several times, I find myself stepping on one, and beautifully bleeding.

Mr. Cave's Sinking Ship.......2006-02-01

I have to say that "Rock of Gibraltar" and "She Passed by My Window" are definitely two of the worst songs Mr.Cave has ever written. No wonder Blixa left. The only song that keeps this album from drowning is "Right Out of Your Hand", a sublime country-ballad that's way up there with "The Ship Song", "Slowly Goes the Night", and "Love Letter". Thank God Mr. Cave's muse came back after this disappointment.

A Great Complement to Murder Ballads.......2005-12-20

Okay, I'm old. I've been influenced by the vibrations in the airwaves of four decades, give or take a little. Suffice it to say, I'm not easily impressed. In the early years, I could be sucked in to a new artist, or new sound, but something as simple as a catchy riff, or a particularly prosaic bit of lyrical magic. Hell, if you go far enough back all it took was one of those pop refrains that sticks in your head like day-old bubble-gum on the bottom of your shoe and won't let go. Times have changed.

Now there has to be some substance to the work, an indication of artistry, or a gathering of incredible musical talent. In short, I ask a lot from any new music before it can be found worthy to part me from some of my hard-earned cash. I'll get to the point. Nick Cave, Australian artist of semi-macabre, moody rock, delivers.

Many of you will remember being drawn in by an earlier album by Nick and the Seeds, Murder Ballads, which is sort of a no-brainer must-hear classic for the combination horror fan music aficionado. While Murder Ballads was raw and rough, Nocturama takes the band's depth, and the lyrical complexity, to a new level.

The music itself is insidious. It is very simplistic, no fiery guitars or wild synthesized sound. You won't be hearing this at a Rave, for instance, but that is not where it's magic lies. It lies in the words. The lyrics, semi-repetitive in some places, eerie in their sense of timing, and the execution of each piece in its turn. Lines like "That idiot boy in the corner is speaking deviant truths . . ." and passages like "The cops are hanging around the house, The cars outside look like they've got the blues, The moon don't know if it's day or night, Everybody's creeping around with plastic covers on their shoes," stick with you. The songs flow, one to another, sometimes seeming to have a theme, as if sung to an absent lover, sometimes shifting gears and seeming to be sung to the victim of some horrible crime, or a long dead friend.

The instruments are violin, piano, guitar and organ. There is a concurrent sensation of symphonic sound and core-rock tradition. It is difficult to put in words an exact description, and for me, therein lies the magic. It is not a stereotypical pop rock plunge, or a dirge-like monotonous death-chant Goth sound, but something different. Dark enough to hold my interest, and yet, delivered with finesse and talent.

This CD features 10 Tracks: Wonderful Life / He Wants You / Right Out Of Your Hand / Bring It On / Dead Man in My Bed / Still In Love / There Is A Town / Rock of Gibraltar / She Passed By My Window / Babe, I'm On Fire. SPECIAL BONUS DVD - included with the limited edition (which was the only edition I found for sale) of a long, silly, bizarre video of the final song, Babe I'm On Fire.

Of those ten, the two that stuck with me hardest are Wonderful Life, which has amazing lyrics and a deeply warped quality running through both words and sound, and Rock of Gibraltar, which starts out to sound too traditional, and ends up hypnotic, with repetitive passages that echo in your head so long you are lost in the next track before they fade.

If you've never heard Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Nocturama will be an amazing introduction, and may well draw you back across notes and years to buy their other work. If this happens, do yourself a favor and find a copy of Murder Ballads first.

Average customer rating:

Copy-protection?!

Nocturama
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Manufacturer: Mute
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00007GRDO
Release Date: 2003-02-10

Tracks:

Wonderful Life
He Wants You
Right Out of Your Hand
Bring It On
Dead Man in My Bed
Still in Love
There Is a Town
Rock of Gilbralter
She Passed by My Window
Babe, I'm on Fire
Shoot Me Down [*]
Swing Low [*]
Everything Must Converge [*]

Album Description

2003 album from one of the most distinctive voices in music today. Nick Cave's 'Nocturama' is set to take his music to a whole new level. This Japanese edition includes three bonus tracks, 'Shoot Me Down', 'Swing Low' & 'Everything Must Converge'. Featuring the lead off single 'Bring It On', 'Nocturama' is Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' twelfth studio album & the follow up to 2001's brilliant 'No More Shall We Part'. Copy Control CD. Mute/Virgin.

Customer Reviews:

Copy-protection?!.......2003-05-05

The good news is that with the japanese import you get 3 extra songs.

The bad news is that after spending $...you find out that the disc is COPY-PROTECTED! Not only can you not even make a copy for yourself, but your computer won't even play the thing.
Buyer Beware...

Nocturama (Limited Edition) (+ Bonus DVD)
Average customer rating:

Don't nag! Just bring it on!

Requires repeated listening ...

A real disappointment!

Underdeveloped

Mediocre Nick

Nocturama (Limited Edition) (+ Bonus DVD)
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Manufacturer: Mute
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Alternative Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

No More Shall We Part

The Boatman's Call

Let Love In

Live Seeds

The Good Son

ASIN: B00007J4VY
Release Date: 2003-02-10