The Weekly Playlist vol 3 : the Nick Cave Edition

Thanks to the proper inspiration I am staying the course and now on the 3rd installment of the Weekly Playlist. While up to this point they have been thematic, this time we are taking another slant and focusing on a particular artist. The reason I picked Nice Cave is because when someone has an itch for folk that borders on country, and suggests they like the fact the singer sounds like a preacher, how can Nick Cave not come to mind? This is not the first time I thought about making this for them as other things they listen to point in this direction. Granted the lyrical content of these songs leans heavily to convey a certain message, so I am not saying these are the top 10 greatest Nick Cave songs ever in fact the might be more like ballads than his typical sonic saunter, but they touch a place in my heart, I can’t stop expressing even at the grocery store after the deli clerk who can’t tell the difference between a wolf and a furry asks “Are the cats in town?” So here ten of the most heartfelt Nick Cave songs that also hold hints of his twangy preachy side.


"Do You Love Me"



"Breathless"


 



"Babe, You Turn Me On"


 


" Lovely Creature"





"Hold Onto Yourself"

 


"Are You the One"



 


 "Carry Me"



 


 "Push the Sky Away"



 



 "Midnight Man"


 

The Top 10 Toxic Love Songs

Yeah, I know we already did a top 10 break up songs, but this is my fucking blog so I do whatever the hell I want. Toxic Love are chemicals still in motion, making the difference being these songs the end result is not as clear cut and in the dysfunction there is the hope for a light at the end of the tunnel which may or may not be the train. I think this rings true because even when things go wrong there are always layers of feelings, so that what I am going for here, so this is almost more of a playlist for exploring the range of feelings. The songs are selected as what has hit my current mood this morning rather than me going through ever song I own to make sure this is the definitive list, after all love is more of in the right now than the forever. I'll let the lyrics of these songs do the talking rather than throw my to cents in as we count these down , which are not in the strictest order so if you are ocd, then get over they have just been arranged the way they are.


 10- the Magnetic Fields- "All My Little Words"

 Now that you've made me want to die , you tell me your're unboyfriendable"

 

 9- the Used - "Buried Myself Alive"


 "I guess it's ok I puked the day away, I guess it's better you trapped yourself in your own way"


 

8-Chris Isaak - "Things go Wrong" 

 "Trying to remember , what I know I should forget"


 

 7-Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "It Gonna Rain Anymore" 

 "Once there came a storm in the form of a girl It blew to pieces my snug little world "


 

 6-Morrissey- "the More You Ignore Me" 

 "I now an essential part of your mind's landscape , whether you care or Not"


 



 4- Emma Ruth Rundle - "Furious Angel"

 If I send you my army only you can disarm me If you won’t have me or bring me your love Furious angels reign death from above onto me


 



5- The Postal Service - "the District Sleeps Alone Tonight"

 "I am finally seeing, I was the one worth leaving"


  3- the Drums - "Blood Under my Belt" I am scared of the child that lives in me I don't know if he learns You left your t-shirt under the bed we shared together I put it over my face

2- Sunnyday Real Estate - "Song About an Angel" 

 And all the time I tried to let you know Discomfort comes clearly




 1- Chelsea Wolfe- "The Waves Have Come" 

 I made you queen and you forgave me we'll be given the world in the right time but we made our own and left it empty


 

the Top 10 Indie Rock Albums of 2016

Indie rock has become a blanket genre for hip college kids. It often hold more pre-tense and less balls than it's mainstream cousins. Here we have a mix of some albums that rock and others that are more introspective. While none of these artists are mainstream, there are some veterans in the mix who are far from the flavor of the week at the local coffee shop. They are ranked according to the albums that earned the most repeat listens.



10- Leonard Cohen-"You Want it Darker"


When you hear his new album “You Want it Darker” his influence on some like Nick Cave is obvious. He is storyteller first and foremost. His gravelly baritone is weathered, but recites the lyrics with conviction that makes up for what age does to one’s voice. At the end of the day he remains a masterful song writer with a vast amount of power over his words.


http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/10/leonard-cohen-you-want-it-darker_21.html

  9-Decorum- "Vail"


 This trio out of Brooklyn casts an ample shade of gloom over their sound on their new album "Vail". This is not another run of the mill post-punk revivalist band, they do not plug in a single six string and instead hit you with a hypnotic swirl of two basses. Vocally they weave their melodies in between a dizzy entanglement of bass lines  that warble in echoing waves. Male and female vocals dance around one another sometimes harmonizing at other times creating counter points. The male vocals are a dead pan baritone that sometimes reaches more of a croon. The female vocals are an indifferent indie rock alto.

http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/04/decorum-vail.html

8-Muscle & Marrow- "Love"



This Portland based duo caught my attention when I saw them open for Author and Punisher. Then when I went back to listen to their album that had been sitting around on my hard drive I was not as impressed.  The album's heart beat comes to life with an electronic pulse. Kira Clark's emotive vocals are layered in a dizzy spiral of melodies.The heavier mood is more restrained at times but still just as potent , and often even more so with the improvements in the vocal delivery on this album. The lighter shades which contrast starkly with the darkness are going to take some getting used to.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/05/muscle-marrow-love.html


7-Dead Forest Index- "All That Drifts"

This duo keeps things dark and simple. The vocals are generally androgynous, giving these guys a much different sound than if they were just another band of Ian Curtis impersonators. The music drifts by you with the slow melancholy pulse similar to Chelsea Wolfe's earlier work hovers like a rain cloud over it.Both bleak and graceful, it often defies genres, sure indie rock is the broadest genre, there are more folk and western influences hinted at than writing these guys off as being post-punk. Slow-core bands like Low certainly would be a reference along with the likes of Sun Kil Moon to some extent in the lethargy that lingers it the heart beat of these songs.

http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-dead-forest-index-all-that-drifts.html

6-Slothrust- "Everyone Else"



They fuse apathy into the punk  attitude that reminds me of  when  Sonic Youth was once punk. The first real song is "Like a Child Hiding Behind Your Tombstone". This weaves it's wave into some pretty impressive jazz chops. The vocals of Leah Wellbaum are sometimes plaintive and some times emotive. "Horseshoe Crab" which is the first song I heard from these kids is pretty powerful and touches on emo in it's honesty.

http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/12/slothrust-everyone-else.html

5-the Coathangers-"Nosebleed Weekend"


California vibes have smoothed out the more abrasive garage rock band that I once saw playing out in the parking lots of Little Five Points. Vocally they have really improved and the jangle of their guitars is not more in tune. Some of their rough around the edges punk riot grrrl comes across in "Dumb Baby". The play a squeaky toy on solo the pop tinged drive of "Squeeki Tiki".I enjoyed it a lot more than anticipated going into this. California is treating them much better than Atlanta did, even though they were the critics darlings there. I think they are in an environment where there creative juices are allowed to flow with greater ease out west. If you are a fan of indie rock with a garage rock vibe then this album is a must for you.

http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-coathangers-nosebleed-weekend.html

4- Self Defense Family- "Colicky"

This ever evolving collective of musicians has been around for ten years. Their newest release finds the more slow core- pacing of what I have previously heard from these guys gone  in favor of a more sonic creeping. The drumming is not heavy or heard hitting, but is very deliberate in more of a Joy Division like fashion. The vocals are lighter and more introspective than the brooding tension the rest of the song stirs. The guitar sounds are once again top notch. The production is just right reminding me of some of the more classic post-hardcore albums of the 90s.


http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/09/self-defense-family-colicky.html

3-Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - "Skeleton Tree"



Darker electronic throb haunts the opening of Nick Cave's new album. This is a much different album than what he has touched upon with the Bad Seeds before. The minimalist arrangement of 'Rings of Saturn" bears a stark vulnerability. Very deceptive as the album is more organic than it sounds on first listen. Theremin and strings create the swells you would otherwise suspect to be Pro-tools plug-in's if this album had been made by any one else. Vocally there is more of narration, leaving me waiting for the moments when he sings. Nick Cave has been a story tellers in the past taking you back to varied colorful pages in the seedy corners of Americana. The darkness painted over these songs is done is shades of gray.Cave more focused on the narrative than letting me hear him sing on some songs, but still stands up with the 15 albums that came before this one. A must for fans.


http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/09/nick-cave-bad-seeds-skeleton-tree.html




2-Marisa Nadler-"Strangers"



She sang on the final Xasthur album and has continued to pave a dark and sometimes country path for her self with her second release on Sacred Bones. It is evident from the opening strains of "Divers of the Dust" that her sense of identity is firmly intact the country croon is equal parts haunting torch singer. "Katie,I Know" is equally ethereal though more firmly rooted in the more Western side of Country. It's evident many of these songs take a few listens before they stick to you, but it's a solid album of intangible songs and feelings.


http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/05/marisa-nadler-strangers.html

1- Emma Ruth Rundle-"Marked For Death"

 In some ways there is not much difference between Emma Ruth Rundle's  second solo album and the last Marriages album, which is a good thing. If you were expecting just her and an acoustic guitar then think again. Perhaps the punches are not as rock and the songs are less jarring in their dynamic shifts, there is a very stormy mood that brews in the first songs.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/09/emma-ruth-rundle-marked-for-death.html

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds : "Skeleton Tree"

Cave lost his son in a tragic accident during the making of this album. To spare himself from doing rounds with the press, he released a documentary called "One More Time With Feeling". This album was recorded during the course of two years. His son died at the end of the first session, so it would be easy to get lost in pondering how many of these songs were written after his son died(only 2) , but that would lead us down into post-humous speculation similar to that which arose with Bowie's "Black Star" album, when fair weather fans began wondering if their were clues in the album suggesting that Bowie knew his days were numbered. I think with both Bowie and Cave what matters to both men is their music. So from this point on in the review that is what we are going to focus. If you want to know more find the documentary.

 Darker electronic throb haunts the opening of Nick Cave's new album. This is a much different album than what he has touched upon with the Bad Seeds before. The minimalist arrangement of 'Rings of Saturn" bears a stark vulnerability. Very deceptive as the album is more organic than it sounds on first listen. Theremin and strings create the swells you would otherwise suspect to be Pro-tools plug-in's if this album had been made by any one else. Vocally there is more of narration, leaving me waiting for the moments when he sings. Nick Cave has been a story tellers in the past taking you back to varied colorful pages in the seedy corners of Americana. The darkness painted over these songs is done is shades of gray. "Girl in Amber" floats like a scene from a David Lynch. Lyrically this seems to be perhaps the most focused on the themes of loss. "Magneto" paints an even sparser landscape. The voice is one Cave's vocals with the Bad Seeds just giving the empty spaces enough of a pulse to hold the song together.It took this one the most listens to latch onto as the way it comes together is subtle at best.


 "Anthrocene" is very surreal and abstract. The song flows with a melancholy calm. That is perhaps the biggest difference in the mood of this album vs the classic 90s Bad Seeds. Aside from "Push the Sky" away which found Cave in a more serene place, his work has alway had a darkness to it. The shadows cast on this album are not of the same tense nature. Vocally the high light of the album is "I Need You" . Gone is the narrative and Cave offers up a more vulnerable side to his voice.It took me another listen hear the almost 80s new wave way the synths sits behind the vocals. Along with "Jesus Alone" this is one of my favorite songs on the album. The lighter duet with Else Torp "Distant Sky" finds them sailing over a cinematic atmosphere.It's clear the rambling adventure is stripped away and these are more reflective in tone.

On my second listen listen to this one I could hear Kate Bush replacing Torp. The title track is more driven by piano and finds Nick Cave taking his place next to the greats like Springsteen, Cohen and Waits as song writer.This is his 16th studio album with the Bad Seeds. I didn't expect another "Stagger Lee" on this album. It's very thoughtful and done with more class, this is not his "Tears in Heaven" , would you expect anything less than him to handle this release in a manner that extremely tasteful and a very focused. This song feels the closest to where he was on "Push the Sky Away". I'll give this a 9.5 as it's often  more minimalist and finds Cave more focused on the narrative than letting me hear him sing on some songs, but still stands up with the 15 albums that came before this one. A must for fans.