4. Nick Cave & the Bad SeedsTender Prey
I know all of Nick Cave’s albums quite well until a certain point. He was a huge, great part of growing up. I think there is a lot of underlying soul-searching in his music that resonates with a lot of people.
This album sticks out for me for what might be a strange reason. This is the one I always go back to and it has something that captures the time. There’s something about the performance on this album that’s so fragile that it feels like it could fall apart at any second. It’s not nearly as solid as Let Love In or Henry’s Dream – this album kicks ass but it kicks ass in a very different way.
‘The Mercy Seat’ is incredible and ‘Up Jumped The Devil’ is barely making its way across the field. It has a lot of those special feelings that words cannot capture and it closes with a song that perhaps not many people remember but for me it’s one of the greatest Nick Cave songs – ‘New Morning’. That’s a real classic Bad Seeds song. It has a feeling of persevering against all the odds and not necessarily stomping in a courageous way. It’s like dragging your feet through the rain and through the snow but never giving up. And hearing Cave’s voice saying, “Thank you for giving me this bright new morning”, is a big part of it.
