Nick Cave Murder Ballads

4 Stars - Excellent - "...never before have manic elements elevated Cave's shtick to art as on MURDER BALLADS....literate, sultry and tortured....the performance of Nick Cave's life..."
"Not for the squeamish, this is the rare pop record that resonates with the weight of the ages..." - Rating: B+
3 Stars - Good - "...Musically, the Bad Seeds touch on tinkling cabaret jazz, country-paced morbidity and every morose station between..."
"...On MURDER BALLADS, Cave offers literary devices that separate good murder ballads from gratuitous cheap thrills..."
Ranked #16 on Melody Maker's list of 1996's 'Albums Of The Year.'
Recommended - "...the most avowedly grim in purpose of all Cave's records....also the funniest....It dips its toes into all manner of styles. Cave is a stranger to none of them, but many would--rightly--be considered unacceptable coming from anyone else..."
"More deaths than a Sam Peckinpah movie. Co-stars Polly Harvey and Kylie Minogue..."
"...MURDER BALLADS is about more than storytelling. In each song, Mr. Cave meticulously creates a macabre fable and then distills it to a single image of death in much the way a photographer arranges a studio shoot..."
Ranked #7 in NME's 1996 critic's poll.
7 (out of 10) - "...grotesque, horrifying, and vaudevillian all at once, an uphill slog you would be hard pressed to term 'entertainment"....[Cave's] baritone doesn't sound disgusted or repulsed, just...cold and diapassionate...so the tables are turned on the listener..."
4 stars out of 5 -- "With Cave sending up his image as the master of the macabre, dismantling it even as he refined his storytelling..."