Murder Ballads

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Murder Ballads

Murder Ballads
List Price: $13.98
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Listen soundtracks from this album


Buy Murder Ballads at Amazon.com
(Click here)
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store

CD Details

Artist: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Edition: Music CD
Format: Explicit Lyrics
CD Release Date: 1996-02-20
Music Label: Reprise / Wea
Soundtracks:
  1. Song of Joy
  2. Stagger Lee
  3. Henry Lee
  4. Lovely Creature
  5. Where the Wild Roses Grow
  6. Curse of Millhaven
  7. Kindness of Strangers
  8. Crow Jane
  9. O'Malley's Bar
  10. Death Is Not the End

Music reviews of Murder Ballads

Music Review: Listen with the lights on
Rating: 5 Stars

I love this CD, but I wouldn't use it for a lullabye. For those who don't know, the CD is a collection of ten songs about murder and mayhem written in the old English ballad style.

The songs are better than CSI to take you right to the bed where a victim lay shot through the head or the barroom where a bad guy is about to wreak havoc. Cave accomplishes this with plangent chords, screaming effects, and vocalizations that range from shouts to whispers.

"Murder Ballads" is not for people who object to strong language or violent situations. If either push your buttons, you're not going to derive full enjoyment from these songs. On the other hand, if you enjoy powerful music that sticks with you long after you've played the disk, this is a CD you are going to want.

Rebecca Kyle, October 2009

Description of Murder Ballads

Nick Cave's been writing songs about killing and other evil things since he first surfaced in 1980 as the Birthday Party's pale, skinny, goth-punk Jim Morrison. But the murder ballads that provide this set's title are different, tantalizingly deliberate. Sure, there's plenty of trademark Cave here, but Murder Ballads is a fascinating concept album that uses the narrative ballad form of the English folk tradition to tell of murder: random deaths, passion crimes, and killing sprees, all in one package. Cave clearly thrives in this genre, and he produces some of his sharpest and most facile writing to date. "Song of Joy," a genuinely scary campfire mystery of a murdered family and an unnamed killer, chillingly weaves clues into the lyrics, while "Where the Wild Roses Grow" is a narrative duet in which killer (Cave) and victim (pop star Kylie Minogue) reveal parallel tales. Cave even shows his knack for adaptation on Bob Dylan's "Death Is Not the End": he recontextualizes a song of heavenly comfort into a sort of zombie "We Are the World" (featuring Minogue, PJ Harvey, Shane MacGowan, and others) in which "death is not the end" of pain and suffering. Above all, Murder Ballads should be heard as a work of pulp fiction--as sensationally funny as it is harrowing. The already violent traditional song "Stagger Lee" becomes gangsta folk, so ridiculously packed with obscenity and brutality it would make the Geto Boys cringe. And Cave's (unintentional?) point to would-be censors--that bad-ass songs existed long before rappers polluted the airways--should not be missed. --Roni Sarig

General CDs

Music Genres
Bestsellers in General CDs
Only by the Night ImageKings of Leon - Only by the Night
RCA; Release date: 2008-09-23; Music CD
Best price: $7.87
Price in other shops: $13.96
The Resistance ImageMuse - The Resistance
Release date: 2009-09-15; Music CD
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops: $18.98
Twilight Soundtrack ImageTwilight Soundtrack
Release date: 2008-11-04; Music CD
Best price: $8.05
Price in other shops: $18.98
Full Circle ImageCreed - Full Circle
Creed; Release date: 2009-10-26; Music CD
Best price: $9.47
Price in other shops: $13.96
Greatest Hits (Deluxe CD+DVD) ImageFoo Fighters - Greatest Hits (Deluxe CD+DVD)
Sony; Release date: 2009-11-03; Music CD
Best price: $11.94
Price in other shops: $17.98
Splendor in the Grass ImagePink Martini - Splendor in the Grass
Dig; Release date: 2009-10-27; Music CD
Best price: $11.80
Price in other shops: $16.98
Live at Royal Albert Hall [CD/DVD] ImageThe Killers - Live at Royal Albert Hall [CD/ DVD]
Dig; Release date: 2009-11-10; Music CD
Best price: $12.44
Price in other shops: $19.98
Here Comes Science ImageThey Might Be Giants - Here Comes Science
Release date: 2009-09-08; Music CD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops: $18.98
Ocean Eyes ImageOwl City - Ocean Eyes
Release date: 2009-07-28; Music CD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops: $13.98
The Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack ImageThe Twilight Saga: New Moon Soundtrack
Release date: 2009-10-16; Music CD
Best price: $9.44
Price in other shops: $18.98
Similar CDs
Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus ImageNick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus
Release date: 2004-10-26; Music CD
Best price: $14.70
Price in other shops: $19.98
Grinderman ImageGrinderman (featuring Nick Cave) - Grinderman
GRINDERMAN; Release date: 2007-04-10; Music CD
Best price: $11.45
Price in other shops: $16.98
Nocturama ImageNick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Nocturama
Release date: 2003-02-11; Music CD
Best price: $8.96
Price in other shops: $13.98
The Good Son ImageNick Cave & the Bad Seeds - The Good Son
Release date: 1996-02-13; Music CD
Best price: $80.00
Tender Prey ImageNick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
Release date: 1992-07-28; Music CD
Best price: $23.69
No More Shall We Part ImageNick Cave & the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part
Release date: 2001-04-10; Music CD
Best price: $44.99
Let Love In ImageNick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Let Love In
Release date: 1996-02-13; Music CD
Best price: $75.21
Henry's Dream ImageNick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
Release date: 1992-04-27; Music CD
Best price: $9.47
Price in other shops: $12.98
Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! ImageNick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
CAVE,NICK & THE BAD; Release date: 2008-04-08; Music CD
Best price: $9.79
Price in other shops: $17.98
The Boatman's Call ImageNick Cave & the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call
Release date: 1997-03-04; Music CD
Best price: $190.97
Compare prices and find music notes for more than one million Music CD titles