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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Papa Wont You Leave Henry |
| 2. I Had A Dream, Joe |
| 3. Straight To You |
| 4. Brother, My Cup Is Empty |
| 5. Christina The Astonishing |
| 6. When I First Came To Town |
| 7. John Finn's Wife |
| 8. Loom Of The Land |
| 9. Jack The Ripper |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
It has been reported that Cave himself hates Henry's Dream. While it is deeply flawed, especially by Cave's formidable standards, he's being unnecessarily hard on himself. Aside from any other considerations, it contains "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry", a rumbling gospel epic that remains a highlight of Bad Seeds live shows, and "Straight To You", an exquisite devotional ballad. It is an odd album, however. Just when its predecessor, The Good Son, seemed to hint that Cave had accepted his natural facility for the heroically overwrought ballad, Henry's Dream was a partial return to the gloomy, old testament portents of "Your Funeral My Trial" and "First Born Is Dead". There was no real problem with this--"Christina The Astonishing" and "Brother My Cup Is Empty" are especially fine--but it leaves Henry's Dream as a whole feeling rather like it is two halves of two separate, half-finished albums. --Andrew Mueller
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
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.
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.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
High Drama
Nick Cave is one of those artists that you suddenly discover has created a masterpiece and that you've owned it for about 10 years. Read more
Published on 24 May 2008 by Neil Irving
A great album buy a great musician
Henry's Dream, Nick Cave's seventh album, is one that I feel sometimes gets undue criticism from the non die-hards because of over production and its reported `unfinished sound'. Read more
Published on 9 Aug 2007 by A. Weaver
Brutal, Dark and Moving
This was an impressive effort from Nick cave and the Bad Seeds and a testament to their truly unique style. Read more
Published on 11 Jun 2007 by Osric_Barquentine
sex, death and rock and roll
Henry's dream plays like a softer twin of Tender prey, that is not say that Cave is rehashing covered ground, it has the similar balance of edgier tracks and ballads. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2002
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