Lovely Creatures
The Best of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds 1984 – 2014
May 5, 2017
reviewed and written by Scotty Evil
I recently spent the afternoon listening to 45 tracks, spanning THIRTY years from one artist. To be frankly honest, I don’t know that I’ve ever truly listened to one of these tracks.
I’m speaking of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. One of those artists who has a deep and loyal following, and iconic beyond that. In fact, a winner of multiple awards including most recently “Officer of the Order of Australia”
And I must say I am suitably impressed by this compilation.
| “There are some people out there who just don’t know where to start with The Bad Seeds. Others know the catalogue better than I do! This release is designed to be a way into three decades of music making. That’s a lot of songs. The songs we have chosen are the ones that have stuck around, for whatever reason. Some songs are those that demand to be played live. Others are lesser songs that are personal favourites of ours. Others are just too big and have too much history to leave out. And there are those that didn’t make it, poor things. They are the ones you must discover by yourselves.“ – Nick Cave |
This is the kind of alt-rock I would expect to hear spinning in a local independent record shop. You groove and bop your head to it…but can’t place the artist. Sounds like a love child of The Doors/Talking Heads/David Wilcox/Lou Reed.
And this massive ‘Best Of’ release should be a must-have in your collection. And it looks like there is an option for all sorts of fans. Lovely Creatures is available in four formats, all featuring personal and rare photographs of the band: Standard CD, Triple LP, Deluxe 3CD with DVD and the Super Deluxe Limited Edition package. Band members past and present raided their personal archives to provide previously unseen photos and memorabilia which have been collected into a beautiful hardcover book, along with a series of original essays. The book is available as part of the limited edition ‘Super Deluxe’ album collection that also comes with a two hour DVD containing rare and unseen archive footage.
The songs here are timeless. Those who don’t know his music would be hard pressed to put it into a niche…the variety of styles, emotions and intensity make no two songs the same. Wistful ballads like “Shoot Me Down” to smoky brooding anthems in “Do You Love Me” and hypnotizing tracks like “More News from Nowhere”.
I started the day knowing next to nothing about Nick Cave. I end this writing having a batch of new favourite tracks. Check out their video below highlighting some of the last 30 years. Lovely Creatures The Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 1984 – 2014 will be released on 5th May 2017 on Mute Records/BMG
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds will be touring, including a stop in Vancouver on June 22 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. For all tour dates check out nickcave.com
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written by Scotty Evil