capsule reviews of miscellaneous titles by
PETER CASE

Nick Cave
Murder Ballads

Nick Cave's career has been a wrestling match with God over the problem of evil.  With The Bad Seeds providing their brand of caustic rock accompaniment, Cave goes into darker places than he has perhaps ever been on Murder Ballads. To a faint electronic pulse, a ponderous plea is offered, "Have mercy on me sir/Allow me to impose on you.../I will tell you a story...." That story is about the collapse of a marriage, but moreso, it's about the loss of Joy (which happens to be the name of the wife, that "sweet and happy thing; Her eyes...bright blue jewels." We are told how the wife becomes progessively "sad and lonely,/became Joy in name only...." What follows is a horrific story, as though Cave is putting to music something he read in the paper, immortalizing as a question to God why such darkness is allowed to run rampant. 

Next, "Stagger Lee" is about a wicked and profane man killing and forcing people to commit gross sexual crimes. Many listeners will sign off at this point. Gotta admit, I wouldn't blame them. This is one of the cruelest songs I've ever heard, without a glimpse of hope or a moment of reflection. Just details, cold and hard as the bullets, spat out by a singer who uses profanity as punctuation marks.

PJ Harvey joins to play a dangerous, murderous seductress who slays the innocent young man who vows faithfulness to his own girl back in "that merry green land". Here the music takes on a beautiful melancholy, inviting us to think of these characters as metaphors where other songs seem like true stories.  The same is true of "Where the Wild Roses Grow", in which a man draws a young woman down to the water and kills her. Her name is Elisa Day, and she can't quite understand why she is called "Wild Rose". Seems the men have labeled her as evil merely for being a woman, and must destroy her.

Repeatedly, the virtuous are run down by killers. But is there any insight here, beyond just the relentless and oppressive evil? Is this just a tedious and exhausting question asked over and over again? Clearly, the message is 'Where is Love in the world?'

Sometimes art loses its artfulness in its fervor to preach a message, and sometimes even preaching is so ferocious that it goes beyond counsel to become part of the problem with its relentless and aggressive nature.The last song "Death is Not the End" swoops in like a last-ditch effort to stop the suicidal. But its plodding delivery sounds more like a sarcastic slap in the face, or the proclamation of yet another doomsayer than a whisper of hope. Ten songs...over an hour of listening...and a whole lot of bad news. Thanks a lot. At least ABC World News Tonight is a merciful 30 minutes long.

Jeffrey's Sum-Up: Sorely lacking.