The next round of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds reissues is set for release on May 17^th. Four classic mid-period albums will be unveiled in deluxe CD/DVD format with audio and video extras in addition to 5.1 surround sound. Included in the series are the manic and doleful Let Love In (1994), the twisted and darkly humorous Murder Ballads (1996), the heartbreakingly gorgeous The Boatman’s Call (1997) and group’s last great triumph No More Shall We Part (2001).

All four of the albums in this installment include the original stereo album remastered on CD in addition to a DVD with the album in 5.1 surround sound, which also contains b-sides, promo videos and a short film about the record.

For a chance to win all four of these indispensible collectors edition rereleases, send an email to tig at threeimaginarygirls.com with "Nick Cave Reissues" in the subject line by noon on May 19, 2011.

Visit the Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds website for more information, including full track listings and details about the DVD extras.

more...

I'm From Barcelona is about to release its third album, Forever Today, which is the most happy-making album I have heard in years. It creates "bellies full of butterflies," sounding like a pot-soaked circus of happy freaks playing in the city at dusk, belting out piano-pounded anthems of joy and fun, fun, fun.

It's a popping party disc for depressives, filled with tickles and kisses and not even the strange electronic distance of house music in its search for trainspotter-into-dance floor utopia. Hand-claps and handed-out percussion about, wrapped around the expressive everyman voice of Emanuel Lundrgren, and I'm sure manifestos will be written against it by buzz-kills and downer-sounding doom lovers the world over. But its pretty pleasures will not get out of my head and I really, really needed it this still-cold spring.

more...

Today, Tuesday, April 6, 2010, Mute Records is re-releasing three of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' albums from my one of favorite periods -- between the rawness of his post-Birthday Party years and before a certain formula set in with some follow up records. Above is a promotional short film for background.

Tender Prey, The Good Son, and Henry's Dream were full of daring, unique gems but were not accepted with loving arms by some post-punk purists at the time of their release. True fans who had enjoyed Cave's prose (the novel And the Ass Saw the Angel and his own magazine Witness) found the son of a British English professor examining new avenues of thought in form and content with his Bad Seeds collaborations. Now they're available again, two discs each, with improved sound and some nice additions from Cave's secret recording history.

more...

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is not a bad album by any means, but it is not particularly moving either. If anything, it is a comfortable recording that lacks the anticipated tension, unease, and despair.

more...

I have always thought of M83 as great background music (that is a compliment)

more...

The album, by all physical standards is a good one. In many senses, however, Last Night feels like the techno equivalent of a classically trained guitarist with top-of-the-line gear playing a Jimi Hendrix song.

more...

And now.... I learn from Aversion that OHMYGOD NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS ARE PREPARING A NEW RECORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

more...

In Our Nature is a starkly beautiful album, leaving much of the work to the listener, but it’s a task that pays off in spades.

more...

It may be this combination of sweet and salty that ultimately makes Ode To The Ochrasy one of the best albums not to breach the bubble of the American market.

more...

A great, if dark, erotic sense of humor throbs throughout this box set, and this all would be worth it for the extended live video encore of "Stagger Lee" alone. The selections lean occasionally towards the obscure and sentimental ("The Ship Song," "Breathless") but don't leave out cool KEXP staples such as "Red Right Hand."

more...