Crime & the City Solution has over the years gone through a number of incarnations, and IMO The Bride Ship represents the strongest of these incarnations -- it's half of a recently disbanded Birthday Party (Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard), Harry Howard, Epic Soundtracks (of Swell Maps), and Simon Bonney, the band's founding member, vocalist, and principle songwriter. Thus, as one would expect, The Bride Ship is the project's most confident, dramatic, and ultimately compelling work.
Perhaps to the album's detriment, the clear highlight is the first track; bolstered by sweeping strings and a passionate lyrical declaration of personal liberation, "The Shadow of No Man" is one of the all-time great album openers, and sets a bar that the rest of the record can't quite reach. However, it's a great record, and any fan of Nick Cave, These Immortal Souls, and any of the aforementioned bands should definitely give it a good listen.
Track listing:
1. The Shadow of No Man
2. The Greater Head
3. Stone
4. The Dangling Man
5. Keepsake
6. The Bride Ship
7. Free World
8. New World
9. Three/Four
He said,
"In the end, we are all brothers!"
I do backflips over Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, yet most of the rest of Mr. Cave's expansive oeuvre I kind of go eh over. Maybe it's because he's just so damn serious all the time. But I'll give this a listen on the strength of your writeup and of course the simple fact that it's here on the 'Hum. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is not Nick Cave so errrrp.
ReplyDeleteI always get a little extra bummed when the opener is better than the rest of the album. That said, Following tracks tend to grow on me over time more often than not with bands in this genre so I'll give it a shot. Never heard all these Cave side projects. Thanks for expanding my horizons bud.
ReplyDeleteGotta say, I think my wording on this coulda been better. "The Shadow of No Man" is definitely my favorite, but it's also literally one of my favorite songs in the world. All the other songs are really, really great, they're just different. Like, imagine if the album "Heroes" had started with the title track -- this big, beautiful epic at the front, then the rest of the album is significantly darker and less accessible.
DeleteAnyway, no problem, and I hope you enjoy it!