Abattoir Blues/the Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave

Over two CDs Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds come up with perhaps the best album of their excellent career. Already morphed into a rock classicist the equal of idols like Cash and Cohen, the alternative rock leanings of previous records have been moulded into a brilliant, beautiful tapestry. The Bad Seeds have grown in stature with each album, as Live Seeds had showcased, but this double album is simply remarkable. The baroque and Godfearing No More Shall We Part is turned inside out by this magical, mystical pairing.

Virtually every song is crafted beautiful with Cave’s lyrics and vocals never being better suited. In many ways its the more subdued Lyre of Orpheus that is the greater achievement, a secular hymnbook, that dreams of love, passion, and miracles. Yet, the rockier, bluesier Abattoir Blues is, if anything as strong, but with a visceral power that Cave and his associates have had since the Birthday party. Growing old with his audience, the songwriting simply gets better and better. One of four Bad Seeds albums of the decade (plus the Grinderman album), by encapsulating all that’s great about Cave’s vision it seems the strongest of them all.