To me, love for an entire album is an increasingly rare experience. It takes you back to a time, or a place, or most importantly, the people. You listen to the album over and over, so much so that when one song finishes, you know what song is coming next and the songs are not as meaningful when they are played in a different order to how the artist placed them all those years ago.
And so it is with one of my all-time favourite albums, Nick Cave’s No More Shall We Part. This album shares a place in my heart and takes me back to the early days spent with my girlfriend (now wife). A child of the 80’s and 90’s, I had little musical influence from my family as I grew up, so the grunge bands of the era always spoke to me and my wife opened my eyes to a whole new world of artists that I missed out on the first time around.
I recently attended Cave’s Q&A session in Brisbane and was fascinated to learn more of his writing process. He goes to his office each day and sits at a typewriter and just puts down what comes out with no initial judgment. He believes that there is no such thing as writer’s block and that people who need to be high to create is bullshit, as he is as creative now sober as he ever was at the height of his addictions. He demonstrates one of his tricks to getting a song started multiple times on this album by starting several of his songs with a simple phrase “I thought I’d take a walk today…”, and the places that takes him is incredible.
Tiptoeing between spirituality and blasphemy is seemingly second nature to Cave. ‘God is in the House’ would have to be my favourite song lyrically on the album, while ‘Love Letter’ has to be the greatest love song ever written.
Forever in my heart will be seeing him perform this album live at Brisbane’s iconic Festival Hall. I was so inspired that I wrote a song in the carpark afterwards. Cave’s music is timeless. No More Shall We Part still speaks to me now, as it did all the way back then.
I’ve never heard of Du0 before reading what he had to say about this album but he’s Brisbane-based producer and with new-ish single/song entitled It’s OK so have a listen:
I’d re-posted four of these from Musicfeeds websites’s series last year. All four are albums I really do love too but two artists I’d really never heard of before and two are my faves. This was put up early last month of May when I wasn’t blogging but I’m re-posting it at the last week of this month. I hope that’s OK? I think, this is the very first time Cave record has be send a love letter in this series and because I do like/love collect Cave stuff here on my blog, I can’t help but too put it up on my blog. Off course, this Cave record has his song titled Love Letter.
Embedding all the No More Shall We Part tracks/videos as found from on youtube, if you haven’t or have heard it before?
As I Sat Sadly by Her Side:
And No More Shall We Part:
Hallelujah:
Love Letter:
Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow:
God Is In The House:
Oh My Lord:
Sweetheart Come:
The Sorrowful Wife:
We Came Along This Road:
Gates to the Garden:
Darker with the Day:
Now a list of basic fun facts, I know about it…
It was the 11th Nick Cave & Bad Seeds album from the year 2001, it came after a four year gap in-between albums. BTW one of the longest gap for them. The album before was The Boatman’s Call of 1997 and then after it was Nocturama of 2003. He got married to Susie Bick just before recording it and some fans call it his “Wedding Album” both have been together every since then so that, I guess explains the album title. Also Cave kicked both drugs and drink so this was clear or you could call it his first sober album too? As you can see/hear just above three promo video clips where made for this album, the last one made also stars Jarvis Cocker of Pulp and Aussie actors Jason Donovan and Noah Taylor plus many others dancing around and was filmed in former building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan.
It was the second last album to have Blixa Bargeld, a founding Bad Seeds member. The fourth one for Warren Ellis but only second as a Bad Seed official member because he only joined the band in 1997 but he did guest on both 1996’s Murder Ballads and 1994’s Let Love In. Ellis does get his first co-written music credits on two songs: Hallelujah and Darker With The Dark. Ellis’ second of only three albums he’s just the violin player, along with the next album Nocturama and his guesting on the two songs on 1994’s Let Love In albums he’s always credited as a multi-instrumentalist on Bad Seeds’ albums, well minus those three albums. Barry Adamson who’s a former founding member of Bad Seeds co-writes Sweetheart Comes but doesn’t play on the album himself. Three Bad Seeds members do play drums: Mick Harvey on the opening As I Sat Sadly By Her Side, Jim Sclavunos on maybe one the most well-known songs from the album Love Letter and Thomas Wydler on the rest of the ten songs. English folk singers Kate & Anna McGarrigle appears singing backing vocals plus all members of Bad Seeds sing “male backing vocals” which that’s how they’re credited in the notes. Back to back or second album recorded at the very famous Abbey Road Studios, so far they haven’t gone back to use it again. The very last Bad Seeds produced by Tony Cohen who did retied soon after doing this album. Cover painting is by Tony Clark, if you count The Best of… comp album of 1998 it’s back to back cover artwork by the very same artists. It’s the third album in the whole Bad Seeds back catalog with 12 tracks on them, the other two is 1986’s cover album Kicking Against The Pricks and The Boatman’s Call. According to setlist website the most played live song from this album is God Is In The House. What else? Oh yeah, earlier this year a visual artist Stefanos Rokos painted 14 paintings based this album, had an exhibition and released a book, his website linked where you can see more or buy it and here’s little youtube clip about it:
Do you want to added something, please do?
Cheers 🙂
a1000mistakes 