Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Let Love In

Long-time Cave boardsman Tony Cohen oversees things, and from the first track, one can hear the subtle arrangements and carefully constructed performances. Love, unsurprisingly, takes centre stage of the album. Besides concluding with a second part to "Do You Love Me?," two of its stronger cuts are the (almost) title track "I Let Love In," and "Loverman," an even creepier depiction of lust's throttling power so gripping that Metallica ended up covering it. On the full-on explosive front, "Jangling Jack" sounds like it wants to do nothing but destroy sound systems, strange noises and over modulations ripping throughout the song. The Seeds can always turn in almost deceptively peaceful performances as well, of course; standouts here are "Nobody's Baby Now," with a particularly lovely guitar/piano line, and the brooding drama of "Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore." The highlight of the album, though, has little to do with love and everything to do with the group's abilities at music noir. "Red Right Hand" depicts a nightmarish figure emerging on "the edge of town," maybe a criminal and maybe something more demonic. Cave's vicious lyric combines fear and black humour perfectly, while the Seeds' performance redefines "cinematic," a disturbing organ figure leading the subtle but crisp arrangement and Harvey's addition of a sharp bell ratcheting up the feeling of doom and judgment.

Ripped from the 2015 German unofficial double vinyl release (with additional tracks) to FLAC

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds; Let Love In

1.      Do You Love Me?

2.      Nobody’s Baby Now

3.      Loverman

4.      Jangling Jack

5.      Red Right Hand

6.      I Let Love In

7.      Thirsty Dog

8.      Ain’t Gonna Rain Anymore

9.      Lay Me Low

10.   Do You Love Me? (Pt 2)

11.   Cassiels Song

12.   Sail Away

13.   (Ill Love You) Till The End Of The World

14.   That’s What Jazz Is To Me

15.   Where The Action Is

The debut Nick Cave album is here