With guitarist/keyboardist Roland Wolf and Cramps/Gun Club veteran Kid Congo Powers on guitar added to the ranks, along with guest appearances from old member Hugo Race, the Seeds reached 1988 with their strongest album yet, the insanely powerful, gripping Tender Prey.
Rather than simply redoing what they'd already done, Nick Cave and company took their striking musical fusions to deeper and higher levels all around, with fantastic consequences.
The album boldly starts out with an undisputed Cave masterpiece -- "The Mercy Seat," a chilling self-portrait of a prisoner about to be executed that compares the electric chair with the throne of God.
Queasy strings from a Gini Ball-led trio and Mick Harvey's spectral piano snake through a rising roar of electric sound -- a common musical approach from many earlier Seeds songs, but never so gut-wrenching as here.
Cave's own performance is the perfect icing on the cake, commanding and powerful, excellently capturing the blend of crazed fear and righteousness in the lyrics.
Matching that high point turns out to be impossible for anything else on Tender Prey, but more than enough highlights take a bow that demonstrates the album's general quality.
"Deanna" is another great blast from the Seeds, a garage rock-style rave-up that lyrically is everything Natural Born Killers tried to be, but failed at -- killing sprees, Cadillacs, and carrying out the work of the Lord, however atypically.
The echoing, gentle-yet-rough sonics on the Blind Willie Johnson-inspired "City of Refuge" and the gentler drama of "Sugar Sugar Sugar" also do well in keeping the energy level up.
On the quieter side, Cave indulges his penchant for gloomy piano-led ballads throughout, and quite well at that, with such songs as "Watching Alice," "Mercy," and the end-of-the-evening singalong "New Morning." "Sunday's Slave" has a beautifully brooding feeling to it thanks to the combination of acoustic guitar and piano, making it a bit of a cousin of Scott Walker's "Seventh Seal.".
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Mercy SeatNick Cave, Mick Harvey | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 07:17 | 16 MB | 49 MB |
| 2 | Up Jumped the DevilBlixa Bargeld, Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Kid Congo Powers, Roland Wolf, Thomas Wydler | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 05:16 | 12 MB | 32 MB |
| 3 | DeannaNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 03:45 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 4 | Watching AliceNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 04:01 | 9 MB | 19 MB |
| 5 | MercyNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 06:23 | 14 MB | 36 MB |
| 6 | City of RefugeNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 04:48 | 10 MB | 31 MB |
| 7 | Slowly Goes the NightNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 05:23 | 12 MB | 32 MB |
| 8 | Sunday's SlaveNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 03:40 | 8 MB | 21 MB |
| 9 | Sugar Sugar SugarNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 05:01 | 11 MB | 32 MB |
| 10 | New MorningNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 03:47 | 8 MB | 24 MB |
| 11 | The Mercy SeatNick Cave, Mick Harvey | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 07:17 | 16 MB | 49 MB |
| 12 | DeannaNick Cave | Nick Cave, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Play | 03:45 | 8 MB | 26 MB |
| 13 | The Mercy Seat (video mix) | Nick Cave, The Bad Seeds | Play | 05:05 | 11 MB | 31 MB |
| 65 mins | 150 MB | |||||
| 65 mins | 413 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gini Ball | Strings |
| 2 | Blixa Bargeld | Composer, Guitar, Handclapping, Main Personnel, Slide Guitar, Vocals (Background) |
| 3 | Bleddyn Butcher | Photography |
| 4 | Anne Carruthers | Archives Director, Coordination |
| 5 | Nick Cave | Composer, Guitar, Harmonica, Organ (Hammond), Piano, Primary Artist, Tambourine, Vibraphone, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 6 | Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Primary Artist, Producer, Vocals (Background) |
| 7 | Tony Cohen | Engineer, Mixing Engineer, Producer, Vocals (Background) |
| 8 | Shaun Connon | Executive Producer |
| 9 | Ian Davis | Guest Artist, Vocals (Background) |
| 10 | Iain Forsyth | Composer |
| 11 | Peter Gruchot | Photography |
| 12 | Amy Hanson | Liner Notes, Sleeve Notes |
| 13 | Mick Harvey | Bass, Composer, Drums, Executive Producer, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Loops, Main Personnel, Mixing, Organ, Percussion, Piano, Vocals (Background), Xylophone |
| 14 | Simon Heyworth | Mastering, Remastering |
| 15 | Peach Kazen | Archives Director |
| 16 | Kevin Paul | Mixing |
| 17 | Jane Pollard | Composer |
| 18 | Kid Congo Powers | Composer, Guitar, Handclapping, Main Personnel, Vocals (Background) |
| 19 | Hugo Race | Guest Artist, Vocals (Background) |
| 20 | Audrey Riley | Strings |
| 21 | David Rowntree | Executive Producer |
| 22 | Slim Smith | Layout |
| 23 | Chris Thompson | Engineer, Mixing |
| 24 | Christopher Tombling | Strings |
| 25 | Kevin Van Bergen | Master Tape Restoration, Transfers |
| 26 | Rachel Willis | Executive Producer |
| 27 | Roland Wolf | Composer, Guitar, Handclapping, Main Personnel, Organ, Piano, Vocals (Background) |
| 28 | Thomas Wydler | Composer, Drums, Handclapping, Main Personnel, Percussion, Vocals (Background) |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |