Audio CD review:
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Kicking Against the Pricks

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Kicking Against the Pricks

Band: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Title: Kicking Against the Pricks Rating: Release Date: 04 April, 1995 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Muddy Water 2: I'm Gonna Kill That Woman 3: Sleeping Annaleah 4: Long Black Veil 5: Hey Joe 6: The Singer 7: Black Betty 8: Running Scared 9: All Tomorrows Parties 10: By The Time I Get To Phoenix 11: The Hammer Song 12: Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart 13: Jesus Met The Woman At The Well 14: The Carnival Is Over

Customer Reviews Best Interpretation of "Standards" In Any Genre I'm sure there is no other album out there whose title can be said to reference both a book of short stories by Samuel Beckett (to go with Cave's minimalistic tendencies) and the New Testament (to amplify his obsession with retribution and other biblical topics). And, strangely, best Nick Cave album of all, considering his catalog of excellent and provocative original material (most of which you should buy, especially the stuff from around this time, like _From Her to Eternity_ and _First Born Is Dead_). Perfect company. The emotion he wrings out of these old and largely obscure songs is well-nigh unparalleled in the history of recorded music. Several of these are country songs by the likes of Johnny Cash and Earl Campbell, feeding beautifilly into Cave's Southern Gothic kick at the time. Then you have the heroin chic of VU's "All Tomorrow Parties" turned cowboy with yells and whips. Then there's gospel (sung rousingly in barbershop quartet style on "Jesus Met the Woman at the Well"--you'd swear you're at a tent revival). And then classic rock in the guise of a foot-stomping version of . . . Ram Jam's "Black Betty"? I'll just say that what the original possesses in Queen-like pastiche and excess, the cover compensates for in field holler mania. All of this is made all-the-more poignant by the very basic recording values at play here. The Bad Seeds thrive with a lead man on the edge between maudlin and mad; they play off him perfectly, making the bare-bones recording jump out at you with the virtue of frantic and impassioned playing alone. The only other place where you will hear such a range of emotion evinced from two or three chords is on a record of Lightnin' Hopkins or Leadbelly originals, making this one of the most visceral listening experiences you will ever encounter. Especially noteworthy is the extremely "out there" version of Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe," where Cave pounds the piano within an inch of the hammers' lives. As far as covers albums go this is one of the best All the emotions you could think of are on display and the production on the album is minimal which gives the songs an added effect. There's not much else to say really. In a way it shows how cover albums should be done or even just one cover version of a song should be done. That's all there is to say. Nick Cave's best....don't let anyone else tell you otherwise And what a wonderful set of intepretations this is. Anyone who followed Cave's career in the early 80's knew that this was coming. From the creepy opener "Muddy Water" to the closing "Carnival is Over", Cave and his bandmates set about stripped-bare arrangements over every song so that the essential evilness oozes out. For "Long Black Veil", instead of the sad, murder ballad, we get the sense of evil the song was always intended to be. And "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", now in this setting is revealed as desperate, lonely vision of wanderlust. But those are just the highlights. Cave's basso profundo voice and dazzling displays of wrecked emotion are more than enough to justify its purchase--its creepy vision of human wreckage/redemption were something Cave and the Bad Seeds had a difficult time following up as the years progressed. Trivia: Tracy Pew, the late Bad Seeds bassist makes his last recorded appearance on "Hey Joe". . You can see a complete list of all Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds discography, or go back to the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds tabs