[rayword45]

Day 347: Skeleton Tree by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Will I ever finish this? It's looking less and less likely not that it means a fucking thing in my life or anyone's. Meanwhile, let's finish my first ever Nick Cave album! I've heard a good deal of Birthday Party songs but pretty much nothing else related to him. And to preface the criticism, I have no desire to think about let alone discuss the death of Cave's son prior to this album's release because assuming that that horrific tragedy is painted onto this album's tone despite the artist's claims to the contrary is a douche move. And also creating expectations for yourself is dumb.

His voice is as overwrought as I've heard about, and it fits when it fits, such as on the post-rock drone dirge opener Jesus Alone. When it doesn't fit, it's just fucking corny, like a priest reading over the wrong CD (see Rings of Saturn's bizarrely uplifting techno or Anthrocene way-too-energetic drum programming). This album is obviously not representative of the instrumentation on his other albums, but that aspect of this album is pretty decent if, again, a little bit on the tawdry side. They do a much better job of conveying the emotions I assume are what Cave intended to express but they're still overwrought at times despite being ridiculously spare and uncluttered by any rock standards.

Meh. More Birthday Party for me. Or actually, just more Scratch Acid.

Best Track: Jesus Alone
Rating: 5/10