Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds -- The Boatman's Call

This particular Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album seems more reserved and pure than its predecessors. Piano-based as it is, it seems as though Cave is humbly singing these ballads from an empty church, belting out his confessions and declarations of love. This album is a revelation. It is Cave opening his eyes and realizing that love is his religion, and he is breaking free of an oppressive God and embracing love as his savior.

Cave's disillusionment with the church is made apparent throughout The Boatman's Call. Cave makes it abundantly clear that his lover is the one who gets him though, not God. In Cave's documentary, "20,000 Days On Earth", Cave says his addiction was his main reason for going to church: to justify his drug abuse. Since getting clean, Cave has not been to church to worship.

In "There Is A Kingdom", Cave sings about being independent from God. The words "kingdom" and "king" are often used to describe God and his dominion over the Earth, but Cave uses these words to show how the "king" is himself, with his "kingdom" being his own independence and self-reliance.

Marriage is a theme which Cave interestingly entertwined with the theme of freedom. While some songs portray marriage as a restricting experience, Cave sings about marriage as though it will bring him freedom, surrounding him in the love that he praises so highly. The "sun would stream on the sheets / Awoken by the morning bird / We'd buy the Sunday newspapers / And never read a single word". Isn't that a nice picture? (Even though, in typical Nick Cave-style, it ends sadly.)

In "Into My Arms", Cave sings, "I don't believe in an interventionist God...I don't believe in the existence of angels...But I believe in love / And I know that you do too". It's all about the importance of love when compared to organized religion. The instruments used in this array of songs also convey this message. Even though Cave is an atheist, Boatman's Call is Jimmy Swaggart-like in its spiritual sound. Ironically, Cave uses the organ and piano (typical church choir instruments) to show the holiness and reverence he has in his love, while at the same time denouncing his belief in God.

That being said, listening to this album is a definite religious experience.

RELEASE DATE: March 2, 1997
LABEL: Mute/ BMG
RUN TIME: 52 min
TOP TWO TRACKS: "Into My Arms", "Idiot Prayer"
GRADE: A+
FINAL COMMENTS: This album is like sex in a church.

Athlete -- Vehicles And Animals

Athlete is the quintessential British alt-rock band from the early 2000's. This album captures exactly the feel of this time: a kind of uneasiness about the future, and a grasping in the dark for one's own identity. It's almost as if the members of Athlete looked at each other and said, "We're survived the '90's. Now what?"

It's things like the shouted "CHORUS!" in "Westside" before the actual chorus: intentional jabs at their own formula which take away from the atmosphere and instead add to their aesthetic. It's postmodern, and it works.

The lyrics are often vague: The phrase "It was just one of those things" in "One Million" left me kind of cold, especially since it was repeated so many times. Some tracks verge on boring. "Shake Those Windows" takes no risks, and is probably the most uninteresting track on this album.

To me, the album started out promising with the boppy "El Salvador" and then transitioned into more of already-done alt-music tropes (like the ending feedback in "Beautiful" and the theremin, which seems to pop up randomly). It then picked up speed with the happy "You Got The Style", which seems to carry the rest of the album on its back. The band really found its own sound with "Vehicles And Animals", the title track. From then on, Athlete sounds less like an Arctic Monkeys garage copy and more like their own project.

RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2003
LABEL: Parlophone
RUN TIME: 46 min
TOP TWO TRACKS: "El Salvador", "You Got The Style"
GRADE: B-
FINAL COMMENTS: Dream-like British tunes which verge on same-y sounds. This is good background music. The album really finds itself after "You Got The Style".