54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best albums I own, April 1, 2001
This review is from: Boatman's Call (Audio CD)
You know, the more I listen to "The Boatman's Call," the more I'm convinced that it's not only one of the best albums I own, but may simply be one of the best albums, period. I'm not usually given to untempered praise, but Cave's intelligent, moody and melodic attempt to work through crises of love as crises of faith is a sobering and powerful reminder of just how far brilliant lyrics and great instrumental hooks will get you.
What I like best about this album is that it thinks big. Cave is tangling here with fierce questions: religion, love, whether human nature is naughty or nice. Themes that would often elicit unreflective power ballads or incoherent and angsty slop from other artists pull instead from Cave some of his best pieces, balanced but yearning, often clever but never cute, and understated but overwhelming.
Cave makes his position clear in the album's first line; he's not religious, not a believer, but song after song seems to insinuate that he can't help seeing something of the divine and the devilish in the powerful emotion of love. "Into My Arms," "Are You the One that I've Been Waiting For?", and "The Brompton Oratory" all marry erotic or romantic longing with a sort of spiritual unrest in search of rest.
Other people have tried this mix, of course--Madonna's "Like a Prayer," for example or Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus"--but none have succeeded as Cave has. Even the very few less-than-perfect moments are never less than interesting. But really, almost all of the tracks are songs you'll have memorized before you know it, and they'll still surprise you every time you hear them. With warm and soft pianos, light guitars, occasional strings, and Cave's soothing bass, "The Boatman's Call" sounds like the kind of prophetic and life-changing stuff you'd hear in a dark lounge somewhere, the room dense with cigarette smoke and hazy with flourescent light, and the audience so quiet you could hear the parting of air as a pin drops.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nick Cave's quiet, mature masterpiece., April 27, 2000
This review is from: Boatman's Call (Audio CD)
"The Boatman's Call" demonstrates Nick Cave's considerable gifts as a songwriter like no other of his albums. A suite of understated, brooding pieces on the dissolution of a relationship, this is arguably Cave's most mature work. The Bad Seeds take a back seat to the songcraft, with stripped-down arrangements allowing Cave's naked yearning and anguish to take center stage.
Cave's search for the divine continues on "Into My Arms", "Brompton Oratory" and "There is a Kingdom", songs that sound almost hymnal in their composition. When he sings "Are You the One I've Been Waiting For?" the subject is murky: is Cave talking about his soulmate or God? "Lime Tree Arbour" takes a gothic turn: a boatman standing watch on a lake, a lone bird circling overhead, doomed lovers holding hands in a lonely arbour.
But the album's centerpiece is "People Ain't No Good", possibly Cave's most misanthropic anthem to date: "It ain't that in their hearts they're bad/They'd stick by you if they could/But that's just bullshit/People just ain't no good". This dirge-like song's greatest irony - and chief evidence of Cave's brilliance - is that it is immensely uplifting. Indeed, few people can make feeling bad feel as good as Nick Cave does. Amen.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
GRAVE & SOLEMN, July 12, 2002
This review is from: Boatman's Call (Audio CD)
This album with its spiritual imagery contains the odd anthemic ballad, like the rousing There Is A Kingdom, but mostly intimate, subdued songs like Into My Arms, Lime Tree Arbour and the resigned People Ain't No Good. Cave interweaves spiritual and sensual metaphor, much like Leonard Cohen. On Where Do We Go Now But Nowhere? one half expects those Cohenesque female vocals to frame his deep voice, but they're not there. My favorite is the weary and erotic Green Eyes, the first line of which is a translation of a sonnet by the medieval French poet Louise Labé. She was the first to write sonnets in French (the style originated in Italy) and was known for her passionate themes. Cave then turns her love poem into a lament of epic proportions filled with equal amounts of romantic longing and despair. Quite a tour de force and enhanced by a strategic swear word or two. The poetic effect is greatly enhanced by the vocal technique: lines are first spoken then sung, which gives it a very ritualistic flavour. Fans of The Boatman's Call would love the albums "New Mother" and "How I Loved You" by Angels of Light, since these contain similar great melodic ballads of gravitas and solemnity.
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