Fourteen classic Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums have been made available for the first time on heavyweight 180g vinyl.
Each album has been re-mastered (overseen by Mick Harvey, former Bad Seed and founder member), and all album artwork reflects the original release from the cover to the printed inner sleeves.
The following six title’s will be released in February 2015: The Good Son, Henry’s Dream, Let Love In, Murder Ballads, The Boatman’s Call, No More Shall We Part.
Tender Prey – LPSEEDS5 ‘ Single LP ‘ 15th Dec
(Original release 19th Sept 1988)
Recorded in Berlin, London and Melbourne and produced by the band. Tender Prey kicks off with ‘The Mercy Seat’ — a song whose critical stature as a masterpiece was all the more heightened when Johnny Cash covered it on his American Songs III album in 2000. Tender Prey also features a song that has become a live staple, ‘Deanna’.
The Good Son – LPSEEDS6 ‘ Single LP ‘ 9th Feb
(Original release 17th April 1990)
Recorded in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with an eight-piece string section comprised of local musicians alongside Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Ranges from poignant elegant ballads like ‘The Ship Song’ to dark timeless numbers like ‘The Weeping Song’.
Henry’s Dream – LPSEEDS7 ‘ Single LP ‘9th Feb
(Original release 27th April 1992)
The band’s seventh album (produced by David Briggs, renowned for his work with Neil Young), Henry’s Dream is the first Bad Seeds album to feature Martyn Casey (bass) and Conway Savage (piano, organ). Hailed by Drowned In Sound as “a masterclass in narrative songwriting”, the album features such stand out tracks as ‘Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry’ and ‘Jack The Ripper’.
Let Love In ‘ LPSEEDS8 ‘ Single LP 16th Feb
(Original release 18th April 1994)
Produced by Tony Cohen, much of the power of Let Love In lies in the mesmerizing intensity of its songs. The sinister and explosive ‘Red Right Hand’ has been covered by everyone from Arctic Monkeys to PJ Harvey, and the song has featured many soundtracks including the Scream trilogy and more recently the opening and closing music to Peaky Blinders.
Murder Ballads ‘ LPSEEDS9 ‘ Single LP 16th Feb
(Original release 5th Feb 1996)
Recorded in Melbourne and London, Murder Ballads turned out to be the band’s biggest commercial success at the time of its release, garnering much attention from Nick’s lethal duet with Kylie Minogue on ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’. Alongside the originals, the album features startling re-workings of traditional songs like ‘Stagger Lee’ and ‘Henry Lee’. Additional guest singers include PJ Harvey and Shane MacGowan.
The Boatman’s Call ‘ LPSEEDS10 ‘ Single LP ‘ 16th Feb
(Original release 3rd March 1997)
By 1997, The Bad Seeds were an eight man strong operation, and yet they saw fit to release this album full of extremely intimate, stripped down, confessional music. Celebrated as the band’s most starkly moving work, key tracks include the single ‘Into My Arms’ and ‘People Ain’t No Good’, featured in the soundtrack to Shrek 2.
No More Shall We Part ‘ LPSEEDS11 ‘ Double Vinyl ‘ 16th Feb
(Original release 2nd April 2001)
The band’s eleventh studio album offered the first new material in over four years. Recorded entirely in London at Abbey Road and Westside Studios, No More Shall We Part consists of the identical band line-up as The Boatman’s Call, abetted by backing vocals from Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Suffused with a slow-burning intensity and drawn out tension, the album includes ‘Love Letter’ (which Uncut magazine placed at number 14 in its list of Cave’s greatest compositions) and ‘God Is In The House’.
2014 saw the first installment of vinyl re-issues from the Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds catalog: From Her To Eternity, The Firstborn Is Dead, Kicking Against The Pricks, Your Funeral. My Trial, Nocturama, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, and DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!
From Her To Eternity – LPSEEDS1 – Single LP
(Original released 18th June 1984)
Recorded in London studios The Garden and Trident, From Her To Eternity marked the debut of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds after the break-up of Nick Cave’s former band The Birthday Party. Features Blixa Bargeld, of Berlin’s Einstuerzende Neubauten, on guitar. Said Cave at the time ‘I don’t really think he knows how to play in the conventional sense at all. He just makes these incredible sounds’
The Firstborn Is Dead – LPSEEDS2 – Single LP
(Original release 3rd June 1985)
Album number two was recorded in Berlin. Co-produced by Flood and the band, it was rich with references to the blues and bluesmen, the American South, and especially to Elvis Presley. Sounds described the album as ‘the most evocative blues record for years’.
Your Funeral. My Trial – LPSEEDS4 ‘ Double Vinyl
(Original release 3rd Nov 1986)
First released as a double EP, Your Funeral.My Trial has a notable melancholy tone. Cave himself later said, ‘(This is) my favourite of the records we’ve done, is very special to me and a lot of amazing things happened, musically, in the studio. There are some songs on that record that as far as I’m concerned are just about perfect as we can get really- songs like “The Carny”, “Your Funeral, My Trial”, and “Stranger Than Kindness”.
Nocturama – LPSEEDS12 ‘ Double Vinyl
(Original release 3rd Feb 2003)
Fast-forwarding to 2003, Nocturama was the band’s twelfth studio album, and was the last to feature founding member Blixa Bargeld. NME wrote, ‘It’s what The Velvet Underground would’ve sounded like if they’d been psychopaths with a heart.’ Trivia point: it includes guest vocals from Chris Bailey of The Saints and from Ian Dury collaborator Chas Jankel.
Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus – LPSEEDS13 – Double Vinyl
(Original release 20th Sept 2004)
A double album with 17 songs, the thirteenth Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album was recorded in Paris in just 12 days, and achieved Top Five chart positions in 10 countries. Abattoir Blues is very definitely a rock ‘n’ roll record, with The Lyre Of Orpheus a quieter, more considered collection of songs. Its final track, ‘O Children’, was featured in the 2010 feature film, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ‘ Part 1.
DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! ‘ LPSEEDS14 ‘ Double Vinyl
(Original released 3rd March 2008)
The band’s fourteenth studio album, the last to feature Mick Harvey, is widely regarded as one of the band’s greatest works. NME described it as a ‘gothic, psycho-sexual apocalypse’. Said Cave, ‘I’ve taken Lazarus and stuck him in New York City, in order to give the song, a hip, contemporary feel. I was also thinking about Harry Houdini who spent a lot of his life trying to debunk the spiritualists who were cashing in on the bereaved. He believed there was nothing going on beyond the grave. He was the second greatest escapologist, Harry was, Lazarus, of course, being the greatest.’
Kicking Against The Pricks – LPSEEDS3 -Single LP
(Original release 18th Aug 1986)
The band’s third album was a collection of cover versions of songs ranging from ‘I’m Gonna Kill That Woman’ (John Lee Hooker) to ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’ (Jimmy Webb) to ‘Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart’ (Roger Greenaway, Roger Cook). Said Cave, “They were all done for different reasons. Some songs were tributes. other songs we didn’t think the song was ever done particularly well in the first place. Some songs had just haunted my childhood, like ‘The Carnival Is Over’ (Tom Springfield), which I always loved.’
This campaign, which follows the acquisition in 2013 of the band’s Mute Records catalogue by BMG, is being handled and promoted by PIAS. BMG Director of Masters and Product Management Didier Dehauteur said, ‘The Bad Seeds catalogue is a precious piece of rock history. We are determined to deliver a set of reissues which genuinely pay tribute to a seminal band.’
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