Murder Ballads
brought
Nick Cave
's morbidity to near-parodic levels, which makes the disarmingly frank and introspective songs of
The Boatman's Call
all the more startling. A song cycle equally inspired by
Cave
's failed romantic affairs and religious doubts,
captures him at his most honest and despairing -- while he retains a fascination for gothic, Biblical imagery, it has little of the grand theatricality and self-conscious poetics that made his albums emotionally distant in the past. This time, there's no posturing, either from
or
the Bad Seeds
. The music is direct, yet it has many textures, from
blues
to
jazz
, which offer a revealing and sympathetic bed for
's best, most affecting songs.
is one of his finest albums and arguably the masterpiece he has been promising throughout his career. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine