Henry's Dream (2010 Digital Remaster) [CD+DVD]

One way to divide Nick Cave's albums is to separate the ones where the primary concentration is on ballads (such as The Boatman's Call and No More Shall We Part) and the ones where the primary concentration is on the uptempo and mid tempo rock songs (such as Let Love In and Abattoir Blues). Henry's Dream is very much in the latter camp.

The album is not devoid of ballads ('Loom of the Land', for example, is very good indeed) but I can't help gravitating to songs like 'Papa Won't Leave You, Henry' and 'Jack The Ripper', which defy you not to sing heartily along, and the murder ballad 'John Finn's Wife'.

At the time it came out I can remember this being described as Cave's 'American album' and the influence of blues and rock is certainly felt here. Experimenting with song forms in which loose, quasi-improvised verses lead into big choruses, Cave creates music that is deceptively loose: his lyrics are superb and highly-worked, so any apparent clumsiness is deliberate, but the craftsmanship is not as obvious here as it is on the ballad albums.

As with all of this remaster series, the sound quality is excellent, especially on the 5.1 mix, which seems to be more restrained here than on some of the other albums but which really shines on tracks where the Bad Seeds chip in with additional vocals. The 38-minute documentary gives a decent slab of analysis, although the amount of time devoted to telling you about production difficulties seems strange when the final master is so satisfactory. The package includes live versions of 'The Good Son', 'The Mercy Seat', 'The Ship Song', 'The Carny' and 'I Had A Dream, Joe', and a couple of other bonus tracks. It also includes three promo videos (with soundtracks in stereo for some reason), and all bonus tracks can be downloaded to a portable device via PC. It's a nice touch that you can download the videos in one of three bit rates.

This is an album full of life and spontaneity, with more than a hint of high spirits. It's not my favourite, but it is definitely worth getting.

After the mellow and swirling ballads of his previous album The Good Son Nick returns to his former bite and epic balladeering in the literary tradition of Edgar Allen Poe and William Burroughs. The lyrics on this album are superb and full of nightmarish imagery and biblical cadences and the music is varied and urgent with the Bad Seeds more than earning their keep. The title track is the opener and still sounds likme a cast iron classic with its singalong chorus and apocalyptic verses of violence and despair. After a frantic and enjoyable I Had a Dream Joe Nick makes an assay on the love ballad in which he has become a modern master. Straight To You anticipates the intimacy and prophecy of the songs on The Boatman's Call. A great growly huge hearted ballad of passion and pain that ranks among his finest songs. Cave takes the American Brother Can You Spare a Dime? folk sentiment and upends it in a glorious drinking song Shane McGowan would have been proud of. The album continues to mingle the spirit of The Pogues,Tom Waits and the holy ghost with the eerie Christina The Astonishing and the ultimate persection of the outsider turned mutderer number When I Frist Came to Town. This theme has become embedded in Cave's world and feature heavily in his novel The Ass Saw The Angel written just before this collection. John Finn's wife is a cracking Murder Ballad with "legs like scissors and butcher's knives" she arouses blood in the eyes of the narrator who of course kills the haples Mr.Finn. The Loom of the Land is a lilting and evocative travelling tune that surprisingly doesn't end in carnage. It provides a welcome contrast from the final track Jack The Ripper which is a lugubrious tune about a henpecked husband whose wife screams rape every time he comes near. Slightly insensitive and clumsy on lots of levels this closer almost detracts in an excellent collection where Cave is finding his own voice by experimenting with his inspirations and borrowing from the ballad tradition of poetry and song. At the time it was his best album so far and now it has been far surpassed but still stands up proud and strong in Cave's beautiful and melancholy opus.

This was the first Nick Cave album I ever owned, but it started a passion for a man who never fails to arouse emotion.

Henry's Dream mixes rock, gospel and haunting ballads to great effect. You could never call this his best album, but it should make you laugh and possibly even cry. And anyone who can sensibly rhyme confetti and machete in the same couplet has to be deserving of more than faint praise.

If you want a taster of Nick Cave, then this is probably not the best one to start with - there are many better, such as Boatman's Call, Red Right Hand and Murder Ballads - but a welcome addition to any Cave collection.