I'm Letting This Love In! Will You? (Let Love In - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds)

Member Name: DanielKemp

Product:	Let Love In - Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Date:	10/08/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Contains some of Nick's most popular songs - Red Right Hand, Loverman

Disadvantages: The second half of Let Love In isn't perfect, a couple of the tracks fail to grab my attention

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Let Love In (1994)

Producer: Tony Cohen

Do You Love Me?
Nobody's Baby Now
Loverman
Jangling Jack
Red Right Hand
I Let Love In
Thirsty Dog
Aint Gonna Rain Anymore
Lay Me Low
Do You Love Me? (Part 2)

Let Love In is the eighth studio album by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds and was released in 1994. After Nick Cave had been somewhat unnecessarily distressed at the production work found on their previous studio album, Henry's Dream, he had all but condemned that record to the watery depths. An odd decision, as in my eyes the production on Henry's Dream was second-to-none and impeccably captured his merciless tales of horror.

The production on Let Love In is a very different affair. It is a far more polished effort, in fact everything seems exceedingly well rehearsed and the songs themselves are recorded to within an inch of technical perfection. Even the likes of Thirsty Dog - a track if found on any other Bad Seeds' recording would inspire only the greatest of fear - seems unusually tight and willing to call itself commercial.

Ah yes, that word - commercial. I can definitely say that Let Love In is the Bad Seeds' most commercial record... ever. So, I guess that this makes for the perfect place to start a Nick Cave collection. But ye olde fans of Nick needn't be afraid that he has somehow sold out, as this LP contains more than its fair share of classic Nick.

The opening Do You Love Me? is suitably sinister, with the cold-hearted rumble of Martyn P. Casey's bass introducing things remarkably well. Before long Nick's bitter piano lines and frenzied organ tuning seem to stir fear deep into the heart of the listener. "She had a heart full of love and devotion, she had a mind full of tyranny and terror", pronounces Nick, in one of his most self-damning routines yet.

Nobody's Baby Now is extremely poetic, as Nick questions the nature of love, religion and faith - some of his most popular topics. Nick sings, "I travelled this world round for an answer that refused to be found... I don't know why and I don't know how, but she's nobody's baby now!" I absolutely love Mick Harvey's playing of the organ, it truly lays a great basis for Blixa Bargeld's to add to with his guitar work.

Metallica covered Loverman to reasonable success on their album Garage Inc. Of course, Nick's version is better. It follows a suitably straightforward arrangement, in which the song goes through a quiet and subdued bar of music, before exploding during the chorus, in which Nick turns in one of his most iconic vocal performances, "I'll be your lovermaaaaaaan!! Here I stand, forever Amen! For I am what I am, what I am, what I am!!" Add to this Bargeld's twisted vocals during the verses, whispering, "How much longer", and you have yourself a sure-fire classic.

Probably the most famous track from Let Love In is Red Right Hand. It has been used in many movies over the years and was given a remix/re-recording for the soundtrack of Scream 3. This is where the glossy production techniques really shine, as Nick performs his vocals in an unusual manner, aiming above all for technical excellence. If you have only heard the single version you are truly missing out, as the album version lasts for over 6 minutes and has an awesome, re-occurring oscillator solo throughout. I'm afraid I'm going with the masses here and declaring it the best track on Let Love In.

I Let Love In is amazingly beautiful. It's one of Nick's more direct tales of love and loss, as he laments the trials of unwittingly falling in love, "The door it opened just a crack, but love was shrewd and bold... my life flashed before my eyes, it was a horror to behold!" Nick performs these frantic tales of love better than anyone else in the business, so it is fantastic to hear him perform one of such magnitude. It is epic in every sense of the word, with The Bad Seeds delivering the performance of their lives.

I feel that the album loses its way a little towards the end of the tracklisting. Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore and Lay Me Low are very pleasant and everything, but they lack the mighty weight of some of the earlier tracks. Having said this, I do particularly enjoy Nick's throaty vocal performance on Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore.

The album closes with the second part of Do You Love Me?, which is given a complete make-over. It now runs at the pace of a snail and is subsequently more downbeat than a manic depressive experiencing an all-time low. The verses are far more introspective in their lyrical content; in this respect it is an entirely different song. The only thing which allows you to trace it back to the first edition of the song is the chorus, "Do you love me?" But even that is now delivered with a sense of disdain for humanity. In my opinion, it closes things perfectly and gives the listener something to think about after the record has stopped playing.

While the previous four Bad Seeds' albums - Your Funeral... My Trial, Tender Prey, The Good Son and Henry's Dream - were all unmitigated triumphs and embodied Nick Cave's obsession with love and religion, one has to concede that Let Love In is a slight disappointment. As my review has often stated, it is still an amazing experience, but it lacks the consistency which set some of his previous records apart from the rest of the crowd. Its crowning glory is that some of the high points available here are some of Nick's career high-points.

So, all in all, this is probably the best place to start a Nick Cave collection and I'm concluding that Let Love In is a near essential purchase.

8/10

Daniel Kemp

Read more reviews at www.danielkempreviews.co.uk

Summary: The best place to start a Nick Cave collection!