 This is not a double album. It may look and feel like one, the two CDs may come in the same box, but Nick Cave hates double albums and insists they're two entirely separate efforts that just happen to have come out at the same time.
With a big pile of songs in front of him he decided which album they went on by who drummed on them. He has two drummers, a light jazzy one, and a heavier rock one, so it's not over simplistic to say that Abattoir Blues is a 'loud' album and Lyre of Orpheus isn't.
Lyre of Orpheus then. It is a softer sounding record, with some beautiful moments, like the discordant but somehow charming intro to Breathless, and the suitably hypnotic Spell. His lyrics, as ever, are enchanting, with meticulous care paid to each word. He flits from traditionally structured story telling, to tender, first person love songs like Breathless
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It's not without the usual dark streak though, so don't be fooled by the romantic images of classical heroes inspired by the title. In the title track Cave's take on Orpheus' legendarily enchanting music leaves him with victims rather than devotees. The effect of his lyre on his wife? "Eurydice's eyes popped from their sockets/and her tongue burst from her throat" and on nature? "Bunnies dashed their brains out on the trees."
These lyrics are encased in some wonderful, deep swinging blues, the highlight of the record. It's as musically feisty as this half of the release gets though. The problem with an album compiled purely of Cave's softer songs, is that there's no real shift of pace, and for fans of Cave's more intense moments it can drag a little.
No such problem with Abattoir Blues. Like the title suggests this is a much more unforgiving record, packed with darker sounds and rhythms, like the sharp, jilting instrumentation on Hiding All Away. But it's not relentlessly intense, there's also jubilant moments, as on There She Goes My Beautiful World, and the catchy, uplifting single Nature Boy.
The problem with double albums, or even two albums released at once, is that it's always tempting to think you could take the best moments of both and have a perfect album with no lulls or filler. That album made from these two records would be unbeatable, but as two records it's still fantastic.
Lucy O' Doherty |
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