Murder Ballads

Melody Maker (12/21-28/96, pp.66-67) - Ranked #16 on Melody Maker's list of 1996's `Albums Of The Year.'
New Musical Express (12/21-28/96, pp.66-67) - Ranked #7 in NME's 1996 critic's poll.
Rolling Stone (3/21/96, p.96) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...never before have manic elements elevated Cave's shtick to art as on MURDER BALLADS....literate, sultry and tortured....the performance of Nick Cave's life..."
New York Times (2/11/96, Sec.2, p.30) - "...MURDER BALLADS is about more than storytelling. In each song, Mr. Cave meticulously creates a macabre fable and then distills it to a single image of death in much the way a photographer arranges a studio shoot..."
Q Magazine (3/96, p.93) - 3 Stars - Good - "...Musically, the Bad Seeds touch on tinkling cabaret jazz, country-paced morbidity and every morose station between..."
Mojo (5/01, p.46) - "More deaths than a Sam Peckinpah movie. Co-stars Polly Harvey and Kylie Minogue..."
Melody Maker (1/27/96, p.33) - Recommended - "...the most avowedly grim in purpose of all Cave's records....also the funniest....It dips its toes into all manner of styles. Cave is a stranger to none of them, but many would--rightly--be considered unacceptable coming from anyone else..."
New Musical Express (2/3/96, p.44) - 7 (out of 10) - "...grotesque, horrifying, and vaudevillian all at once, an uphill slog you would be hard pressed to term `entertainment"....[Cave's] baritone doesn't sound disgusted or repulsed, just...cold and diapassionate...so the tables are turned on the listener..."
Entertainment Weekly (3/8/96, p.66) - "Not for the squeamish, this is the rare pop record that resonates with the weight of the ages..." - Rating: B+
Option (3-4/96, p.89) - "...On MURDER BALLADS, Cave offers literary devices that separate good murder ballads from gratuitous cheap thrills..."