The Best of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Album Review

To celebrate Australia’s premier moustached singer, songwriter and author, EMI are re-releasing Nick Cave’s back catalogue – including the always excellent entry point “The Best Of”.

Cave & his Bad Seeds are generally one of those bands that you either know and love, or are aware of and feel that you should know more about. No doubt you’ve heard his music somewhere along the line and the (originally released in 1998) Best Of should hopefully provide an idea of what.

For the un-inducted, Nick Cave has a voice that could make a wolverine purr. He’s always a lyrically incredibly clever writer, and can move from style to style rather seamlessly – something that is brought to the fore in this collection – although the roots of his music are in blues/rock.

From the rock of ‘Deanna’, ‘Tupelo’ and ‘Red Right Hand’, via some of the best (subtle) ballads ever written with ‘(Are You) The One That I’ve Been Waiting For’ and ‘The Ship Song’, to murder-ballads such as the well known ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’, Cave has been writing songs to pluck at the heart strings, encourage you to move your feet, and generally enjoy music. He is a consummate storyteller whose compositions will always give you something new to find on repeat listens.

It’s a shame that it’s missing some of the later stuff, from No More Shall We Part, through Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheous to Dig, Lazurus, Dig!!!, but it’s the earlier tunes that you’ll recognise.

His career continues to go from strength to strength with new band ‘Grinderman’ – but this compilation is one of the better ‘Best Of’ ones out there – and it demands to be in your collection, if nothing else, for those moments when you’re not entirely sure what to listen to.