Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Literature Put To Music, December 16, 2001
I am rather new to the music of Nick Cave and after listening to this mesmerizing CD came away with the impression that here was an unmined gem from the southern US. So "southern" is the music that I was very surprised to find that he is an Aussie.
The first cut sets the tone for what is to come. "As I Sat Sadly By Her Side" is gripping both musically and lyrically. Here, as throughout the CD, Cave's piano casts a relentlessly somber pall over the vocals, thus giving the music its southern gothic feel.
I like most of the CD but it is "God is in the House" that is a tour de force, both conceptually and as presented. It is a viciously sardonic song which sneers at the fiction of social harmony that is the stereotype of small-town life. Cave's singing style on this song is storytelling at its best.
I also find Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow an emotionally powerful song that I could listen to for hours.
Cave's music is hard to categorize, but No More Shall We Part is some of the most intelligent music I've heard in some time. His songwriting genius puts him in a class with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. He is more than a musician, he is a poet and a writer, and his songs here can best be described as literature put to music.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Five-star album, as always., August 31, 2001
After first discovering Nick Cave in 1996, I've since made it a point to own every album he's ever released with the Seeds, from 1984's "From Her To Eternity" right up to this evocative set, which I purchased within days of its release. I had just trekked some 800 miles to New Orleans to witness Nick's solo performance at the Orpheum, and had been suitably blown away. Even anchored to a piano, the man commands awe. As I write this review, I'm looking forward to the Bad Seeds' appearance next month at the Chicago Theatre with great anticipation. I am a die-hard, life-long Nick Cave addict. As for the songs on this album, many have perceived them to be a departure from Cave's earlier works, whereas I see them as a natural progression. The beauty of Cave's early works was in his intermingling of Love, Death, and Religion...the three became inseperable in the hands of this master storyteller. This is a trend which continues on "No More Shall We Part," Cave's eleventh studio album with the Seeds. What we have here is not at all a deviation from Cave's lyrical style, brilliant as always in its depictions of the joys and agonies of Love/Death/Religion. Rather, it is the evolution of his delivery of those lyrics. The haunting melodies on this set are intended to evoke certain emotions from the listener, just as any dedicated fan can tell you has been the case since "From Her To Eternity"...and even back to the Birthday Party days. Only now, those emotions are raised by well-placed strings and simple, but stunningly beautiful, piano lines...whereas, back in '84, the Seeds were evoking those same feelings with a barrage of noise and rage. My favorite track on this album (though the race is close, to be certain) is the opener, "As I Sat Sadly By Her Side." As with all of Cave's songs, it takes the form of a story. A man and woman sit at a window and watch the world pass. She points out the beauty of it all while he ponders the injustices and blindness which men inflict upon their brethren. "All outward motion connects to nothing, for each is concerned with their immediate need." She draws the curtain down and states that what happens outside that window is none of his concern. She turns from him crying, and he states "I could not wipe the smile from my face as I sat sadly by her side." Why does he smile? Because although she does not realize it, she has proven his point about people being too wrapped up in their own lives to care about the suffering of others. The smile is his unconscious reaction to this situation, though it suggests, not that he is happy with this outcome...but rather, just the opposite. In a way, he had wished himself wrong. It is subtle lyrical touches like these which ensure that Cave's place in musical history is assured. A man of such outright genius cannot be denied by the ages. Though his music cannot by defined as conventionally popular, it will one day take its place among the greatest music of the twentieth century. And Cave shall take his rightful place alongside Weill, Dylan, Reed, and Cohen as one of the greatest songwriters of this century.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cave's best ... so far, November 15, 2004
This is one of the few albums that I can honestly say, I liked every track. Some of the songs took awhile to grow on me as is the case with most of Cave's work. "Darker with the Day" took me some time to get used to, but the rest of it sank in pretty well from the beginning. It all has a subdued pop sensibility, which means that it's very subtle, but still there.
This album contains some of Cave's best writing such as "Hallelujah", "God is in the House", "Oh my Lord", and "We Came Along this Road", but actually they're all written well, so there's no reason to keep listing great ones.
There's an incredible depth to this album. Every emotion is here, even humor if you can believe (albeit morbid humor, heh). I would rate this album up there with the great ones (Plastic Ono Band, Highway 61 Revisited, Five Leaves Left, Led Zeppelin III, Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, All Things Must Pass, Mellow Gold, The Doors debut, Electric Ladyland, Magical Mystery Tour, and all those others I can't fit on here).
And for those wanting to get the limited edition, I would recommend it. The songs, "Grief Came Riding" and "Bless His Ever-Loving Heart" are great B-sides, purely in mood of the album. Also included in the limited edition is a fairly short 'documentary' on the "And No More Shall We Part" recording sessions. These have some different scenes than the ones on the "God is in the House" dvd. To me it was worth it to pay the extra $$$.
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