Album: The Boatman's Call
Artist: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Born: Melbourne, Australia
Released: March 1997
Genre: Gothic Rock
By 1997, Nick Cave had been around for a long time, but this album was my first proper introduction to his music. I'd already seen the videos of his collaborations with fellow Antipodean Kylie Minogue (Where The Wild Roses Grow) and PJ Harvey (Henry Lee), both released as singles to promote Cave's 1996 album, Murder Ballads, but The Boatman's Call was the first of his albums that I bought and listened to in full. It has a style that's atypical of his work, with the Bad Seeds moved to the back of the mix and Cave's dark lyrics and mournful voice brought front and centre. There's a still a gothic element to the music, but in this case it's found in the songwriting more than the musical style. Having now listened to most of Cave's output, The Boatman's Call remains my favourite of all his LPs, even going back to his post-punk days in The Birthday Party and forward to his work with Grinderman. There's something restrained and dignified about the music, and a real timeless quality to the songs. Also, there's that pervading sense of loneliness that has underpinned some of the best albums ever made, from Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours to Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Despite his image as a sombre storyteller, what Cave really excels at is tender ballads and The Boatman's Call is full of piano-driven songs, starting with the moving Into My Arms. Apparently, Cave had some criticisms of the video by Jonathan Glazer (who would go on to direct the 2000 masterpiece, Sexy Beast), saying that the song's optimism was not reflected in the depressing images.
Into My Arms was also performed by Cave at the funeral of INXS singer, Michael Hutchence. Amid the melancholic mood of the song, there's definitely a sense of hope and a yearning for redemption in the lyrics ("And I believe in some kind of path / that we can walk down, me and you"). Cave was hurting from a divorce and the end of a love affair with PJ Harvey, which gives The Boatman's Call its incredible emotional depth. West Country Girl and Green Eyes are most obviously about PJ Harvey ("She's got a house-big heart where we all live / and plead and counsel and forgive"), but both are also love songs that have taken on a life of their own. There are times when Cave's sorrow is hard to listen to, notably People Ain't No Good ("To our love send back all the letters / to our love a valentine of blood"), though the song improbably ended up on the Shrek 2 soundtrack. Some tracks focus not just on heartbreak, but death and religion too, with Brompton Oratory one of the LP's real highlights, in the way it compares the death of a loved one (Cave had lost his father around the time of this record) to the existential feeling of loss at the end of a relationship. Mark Lanegan performed a memorable cover of the song on his 2013 LP, Imitations. Other highlights include the emotional piano-based hymn There Is a Kingdom and the bleak Far From Me, with its haunting violin part played by Warren Ellis. There's a great article by Cave in the Guardian, in which he writes about the art of the love song. "Though the love song comes in many guises – songs of exaltation and praise, of rage and of despair, erotic songs, songs of abandonment and loss – they all address God, for it is the haunted premise of longing that the true love song inhabits. It is a howl in the void for love and for comfort, and it lives on the lips of the child crying for his mother."
By 1997, Nick Cave had been around for a long time, but this album was my first proper introduction to his music. I'd already seen the videos of his collaborations with fellow Antipodean Kylie Minogue (Where The Wild Roses Grow) and PJ Harvey (Henry Lee), both released as singles to promote Cave's 1996 album, Murder Ballads, but The Boatman's Call was the first of his albums that I bought and listened to in full. It has a style that's atypical of his work, with the Bad Seeds moved to the back of the mix and Cave's dark lyrics and mournful voice brought front and centre. There's a still a gothic element to the music, but in this case it's found in the songwriting more than the musical style. Having now listened to most of Cave's output, The Boatman's Call remains my favourite of all his LPs, even going back to his post-punk days in The Birthday Party and forward to his work with Grinderman. There's something restrained and dignified about the music, and a real timeless quality to the songs. Also, there's that pervading sense of loneliness that has underpinned some of the best albums ever made, from Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours to Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Despite his image as a sombre storyteller, what Cave really excels at is tender ballads and The Boatman's Call is full of piano-driven songs, starting with the moving Into My Arms. Apparently, Cave had some criticisms of the video by Jonathan Glazer (who would go on to direct the 2000 masterpiece, Sexy Beast), saying that the song's optimism was not reflected in the depressing images.
Into My Arms was also performed by Cave at the funeral of INXS singer, Michael Hutchence. Amid the melancholic mood of the song, there's definitely a sense of hope and a yearning for redemption in the lyrics ("And I believe in some kind of path / that we can walk down, me and you"). Cave was hurting from a divorce and the end of a love affair with PJ Harvey, which gives The Boatman's Call its incredible emotional depth. West Country Girl and Green Eyes are most obviously about PJ Harvey ("She's got a house-big heart where we all live / and plead and counsel and forgive"), but both are also love songs that have taken on a life of their own. There are times when Cave's sorrow is hard to listen to, notably People Ain't No Good ("To our love send back all the letters / to our love a valentine of blood"), though the song improbably ended up on the Shrek 2 soundtrack. Some tracks focus not just on heartbreak, but death and religion too, with Brompton Oratory one of the LP's real highlights, in the way it compares the death of a loved one (Cave had lost his father around the time of this record) to the existential feeling of loss at the end of a relationship. Mark Lanegan performed a memorable cover of the song on his 2013 LP, Imitations. Other highlights include the emotional piano-based hymn There Is a Kingdom and the bleak Far From Me, with its haunting violin part played by Warren Ellis. There's a great article by Cave in the Guardian, in which he writes about the art of the love song. "Though the love song comes in many guises – songs of exaltation and praise, of rage and of despair, erotic songs, songs of abandonment and loss – they all address God, for it is the haunted premise of longing that the true love song inhabits. It is a howl in the void for love and for comfort, and it lives on the lips of the child crying for his mother."
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