Nick Cave & The Bad SeedsMurder Ballads
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Candlelit one moment, blood-soaked the next, this is a whole album about people who kill and get killed. Cave's baritone narrates over swelling strings and churchy organ like a noir stage play. "Where the Wild Roses Grow" turns a riverside courtship with Kylie Minogue into murder; "Henry Lee" hushes down to acoustic chemistry with PJ Harvey, who became his partner during sessions. Then "Stagger Lee" swaggers in profane and menacing, and "O'Malley's Bar" stretches a barroom massacre to 14 grandiose, blackly comic minutes. Gallows humor and operatic dread, beautiful and grotesque. Cave's best gateway and a fan favorite for good reason.