This wasn't the first Nick Cave album I'd heard, or bought, but when it arrived, it made an impression like no other had. Possibly the start of his 'gentler, pastoral' works, it's inspired by his affair with PJ Harvey. I saw the band in London a year or so after this album, and the mixture of these gentler songs and some of the more raucous older ones (including St Huck for the first time in ages) was spellbinding.
There was a time when I would have claimed this was my favourite album of all time. I'm not so sure now, but it's certainly up there, even if I can look at it a little more objectively now.
Opening with the simple, beautiful Into My Arms, Cave channelling his love through his spirituality, we quickly move to Lime-Tree Arbour, a short, slow gentle ballad, with a very jazz rhythm section and then the doom laden People Ain't No Good (my kids knew it from Shrek 2 - how cool is dad?) Cave's fatalism intertwined with the narrative of the love story. Brompton Oratory again mixes Cave's spiritual with his relationships, with a minimal electronic accompaniment, a theme continued on the hymn-like There Is A Kingdom. Are You The One I've Been Waiting For? feels more sinister and even more hopeless, the song almost begging the answer 'no'. It's a beautiful song, as is the question which follows, Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere? wonderfully accompanied by Warren Ellis' squealing violin. If these songs weren't about Polly (some say they referred to his previous girlfriend Viviane), then the simple West Country Girl, and mournful Black Hair (Ellis again, this time on accordion) most certainly are. And while you're reeling from that, along comes Idiot Prayer, which fits musically, but the dark lyrics make it feel like something from the earlier album Murder Ballads. Now if the final track had been Far From Me, one of the world's great break up songs, I'd have said the album was perfect. But it isn't, Green Eyes is. And no matter how I try, I can't reconcile this song with the rest of the album, I really dislike it.
But this is a remarkable album, even with that final flaw, one that tugs on the heartstrings throughout while driven by excellent songwriting, and the restrained accompaniment that only top musicians can manage.
5* - a masterwork from Cave (even with Green Eyes)
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