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Album Details

• Artist: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
• Album: B-Sides and Rarities
• Label: Mute
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2005-06-23

Any country where The Birthday Party is their Beatles is my kind of country. Australia has been responsible for more stoopidly aggressive bands this side of Detroit. Radio Birdman, God, AC/DC, Pray TV, Skyhooks,...it goes on . but Nick Cave is still leading the parade The New Leonard Cohen was once the New Elvis, and that is not necessarily a step down. In the past ten years, Cave has refined his sound and lyric obsessions into a vision that was there untamed at the beginning: Old Testament fire and brimstone, unfathomable demands of love, hate, and the fragile acceptance of aging. There has rarely been any filler on his records, which have had a sweep of theme and deliberate focus.
So it seems odd that he would put out a rarities record, and a 3CD set at that. This is a fan's dream, but I think even diehards may think that some of this could be left in the attic. Still, it does have the feel of a coherent, complete record rather than a collection of odds and sods.
The highlight is an otherworldly version of Neil Young's "Helpless", which rivals the original for its brooding power. Thematically, the set flows from acoustic and ornery, fairly orchestrated and, best of all, a brooding third disc featuring the kind of brooding Boatman's Call, No More Shall We Part-era greatness. Also of note are a cover a "Running Scared", a brutal stripped down "The Mersey Seat", a full band version of "Black Hair", and a cover of Shane McGowan's "Rainy Night In Soho" that atones for the self-indulgent duet between the two on "What a Wonderful World." Most serious rock music of the past twenty years has been filtered through Nick Cave.
This is a good place to start to become a believer.

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