Pop reissue: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: From Her to Eternity (original) (raw)

The Bad Seeds' 1984 debut is the sound of Nick Cave scooping up the ashes of the Birthday Party and scattering them into the darkest hour before the dawn of a bright future. Remastered and remixed, it's an intense blend of delta blues and experimental post-punk glued together by Cave's newly confident story-telling. Backed by Blixa Bargeld's clanging guitar atmospherics and Barry Adamson's aggressive bass, Cave takes Leonard Cohen's Avalanche to chilling new heights of despair. Grunting, growling, screaming and hissing, he's seedy in Saint Huck, both aching lover and mindless torturer in Wings Off Flies and a galley slave chained to madness and drowning in frustration in Cabin Fever! Though there are shades of the crooner Cave was to become, he's still more Iggy Pop than gothic Elvis. But the title track, co-written with ex-girlfriend Anita Lane, reveals his determination to make personal, profound music that stands the test of time and his desperation to forge something new.