Double albums are loud, swaggering drunks. They sneer at logical thought and laugh at oncoming traffic. Both ridiculous and oddly fascinating, double albums can capture the imagination, but they’re most likely to get hit by a bus. It takes a certain type of artist to pull off such a blatantly pretentious idea, and with Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have stumbled across the street without a scratch.
For any double disc to survive, it needs a healthy dose of self-indulgence. In this case, there are the hilariously pompous album titles and Cave’s proclivity towards, well, himself. (When asked his opinion on Abattoir… by Mojo magazine, Cave replied, “It’s the work of a genius.”) Thankfully, the album titles aren’t accurate reflections of the songs, which don’t require a Masters in Greek mythology. Cave ruminates on questions of existence, love and attraction without showing off too much. For the most part, this is a collection of booming, beautiful love songs, full of old-fashioned desperation and rich, throaty longing.
Of the 17 tracks, “There She Goes, My Beautiful World” is the emotional high point. If anything on this record is actually a stroke of genius, it’s Cave’s liberal use of the London Community Gospel Choir. The singers lend ghostly power to the soul-stirring, gospel-tinged track, enhancing the songwriter’s romantic lyrical portraits: “The elm, the ash, the linden tree/The dark, the deep enchanted sea/The trembling moon and the stars unfurled/There she goes, my beautiful world.” The record is a tapestry of moods, from the lighthearted, birdlike flutes of “Breathless” to “O Children,” a crushing dirge that closes out The Lyre Of Orpheus. The choir haunts both LPs, complementing Cave’s weathered baritone in spine-tingling fashion.
Double albums aren’t as prevalent as they were in the excess-laden ‘70s, when they served as elaborate excuses for cokeheads in leather pants to spend a few hours yelling about wars, wizards, idiot savants and alien invasions. Like Pete Townshend, Roger Waters and Big Boi & Dre, Nick Cave has translated his own artistic gluttony into a digestible, impassioned and undeniably gorgeous piece of work.
Appeared in the October 21, 2004, issue of Artvoice.