10. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part (2001)


1. As I Sat Sadly by Her Side
2. ...And No More Shall We Part
3. Hallelujah
4. Love Letter
5. Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow
6. God Is in the House
7. Oh My Lord
8. Sweetheart Come
9. The Sorrowful Wife
10. We Came Along This Road
11. Gates to the Garden
12. Darker with the Day

At the end of a cycle of virtually constant studio and stage work throughout the 90s came the Boatman's Call in 1997, which came as an unusual step after the brutal and nightmarish Murder Ballads. The former saw a remarkably tender, much more mellow and lyrically romantic Nick Cave arrive on the scene laden as it was with gorgeous, piano-led ballads featuring very sparse (though still vital) contributions from the Bad Seeds. It was a wonderful album, the only flaw of which would be the fact that it sounds under-thought, somewhat unfinished and as if its full potential hadn't been realised in the studio.

Four years later (having taken the time off to shake off his heroin habit), Cave and Bad Seeds took to Abbey Road studios to address the flaws of the Boatman's Call and, seeing as I'm going on about it here, this is exactly what they did, making some of the most beautiful music ever as a result. Again, as with the album which preceded it, the focus is on slow, contemplative and lyrically rich ballads (in another example of some of the finest lyrics ever committed to record), only this time the songs more well-rounded and glossy than before. The opening forty seconds of the album, in the blissful ballad As I Sat Sadly By Her Side, are as good an indicator as any for what we can expect - while the softly-struck piano notes are pushed higher in the mix, we can still hear the Bad Seeds demonstrating their versatility as a backing band, does so well to carry the song along. It's a vein that runs through the next couple of tracks, ...And No More Shall We Part and Hallelujah, as the album goes about its melancholy opening. Another facet of the songwriting which is carried over from the Boatman's Call and used to a fuller extent is the use of Warren Ellis' violin, supplying the songs with even more texture and raising the bar of the album's quality that little bit more.

Starting with Love Letter the overall mood of the album takes a turn towards the uplifting, if slightly naive (this particular one concerning someone who sends love letters as part of some mental compulsion - yes, it's a condition that actually exists), while remaining in the same piano-led court as the songs before it. Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow is the only real throwback to the Bad Seeds sound of old, and even that's a pretty vague one, being a slow-boiling tune which eventually builds towards a thrilling chorus, all the while opting for a more heavy-handed approach from the band.

All in all though, despite the occasional nod to the white-hot band-wide freakouts on earlier records, No More Shall We Part finds the group gripping this new, gentle and deeply emotional sound by the horns and manipulating it with very good results. The stunning God Is In the House, with its fragile arrangement and extremely gentle vibe, is this way of songwriting in a nutshell. The following Oh My Lord is a much more uptempo moment and another one of Cave's masterpieces, demonstrating his main strength as a songwriter, that being the composition of songs which build to terrific climaxes on the back of the urgency in his lyrics and rising temperature of the Bad Seeds' performances. On top of that, it's also home to one of the man's best vocal performances.

Over the remaining tracklisting settles the kind of mood which opened the album, that being one of a deeply poetic and gorgeously evocative melancholy, which is perfectly summed up by the tender Sweetheart Come (listen out for Ellis' beautiful violin solo). With regards to the last four tracks though, starting with The Sorrowful Wife, the word incredible comes to mind. The Sorrowful Wife kicks off in the same vein as the preceding ditty but, upon evolving into the manic thrash-up halfway through (one of those classic 'wtf' moments) comes across as a truly brilliant song. We Came Along This Road is probably the most theatrical moment here, the intro building up on the back of Cave's seamless piano chords, and continuing to build throughout the verse-chorus structure towards a blissful string-laden climax which sees the song to its end.

The closing couple of songs are from another world of piano-led balladry altogether. Gates Of the Garden is as close to the perfect song as you'll get, both musically and lyrically, while the same can be said of Darker With the Day. Without going on too long, if you want to know how to write musical and lyrical ballads with as much emotional resonance of the ending of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, look no further than these two songs.

In fact, look no further than this album. Primarily using the growing potency of the croon of Nick Cave's voice, his ability to lay down a killer piano track, Warren Ellis' violin and occasionally the backing vocals of Kate and Anna McGarrigle, the group takes the promise of a more mellow direction first explored with the Boatman's Call and exerts it to its limit, resulting in a very well-rounded, wonderfully-produced and absolutely excellent album of piano-led ballads. Top stuff.