When he shrieks вЂњRight!вЂќ in вЂњCabin Fever,вЂќ itвЂ™s remarkably similar to his вЂњBite!вЂќ from вЂњRelease the Bats.вЂќ But Cave chooses to mark this new phase by starting it off with an eerie cover of вЂњAvalanche,вЂќ the opening track from Leonard CohenвЂ™s epic bummer, Songs of Love and Hate. The noisy post-punk approach echoes the gothic blues of Mutiny/The Bad Seed (note the title), and Cave gives some reasonably familiar vocal performances. So it makes perfect sense that a new band featuring two of that groupвЂ™s key players would end up recording an album that sounded very much like The Birthday Party. The Birthday Party hadnвЂ™t been broken up even a year when Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released their debut album From Her To Eternity. Listen to our Essential Nick Cave playlist while you read, or whenver. This feature strictly focuses on the Nick Cave albums with The Bad Seeds, which is already an embarrassment of riches as it is. I should note that this doesnвЂ™t include the albums by The Birthday Party ( Prayers on Fire is 9.something, and Junkyard is a perfect 10), or Grinderman (the first and the second are each a mid-8). There are no bad albums, just those that donвЂ™t quite rise up to be as profoundly stunning as the others. YouвЂ™ll find that most of the scores for the albums in this feature are separated mostly by a few scant decimal points. The thing about Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, however, is that their discography is remarkably consistent. Now that Mute is reissuing the bandвЂ™s catalog on vinyl, it seemed appropriate to finally take the journey. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is an artist IвЂ™ve been wanting to tackle for Celebrate the Catalog for a long time, and only held back because it required a bit more attention than usual (though not more than Miles Davis or David Bowie, which took a while). And though they might often be fictional creations, everyone who populates a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album is born of the same brilliantly dark mind. When he assumes the role of his characters, he can either be a Don Juan or a murderous fiend - an emotionally exposed poet, or a right bastard. His influences came not only from the likes of Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen, but in Cormac McCarthy novels and The Bible, with a healthy dose of American blues tradition.

It should come as little surprise to newcomers hearing any of his albums for the first time that heвЂ™s also penned novels and screenplays. If Nick Cave proved himself early as a rabid dog in performance mode, itвЂ™s his keen observations and witty manipulations of human kindness and depravity that have made him a legendary songwriter. And for 31 years, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have been slowly building up one of the most consistent and chilling discographies ever recorded - as much as вЂњconsistentвЂќ applies to an artist thatвЂ™s never stopped evolving.

When that band dissolved in 1983, Cave and bandmate Mick Harvey formed The Bad Seeds in its wake. Their free-jazz influence made them abrasive and cacophonous, but it was in the performance-art-like destruction of frontman Nick Cave that the band took on an entirely new level of musical terror. By all accounts - and based on a thorough listen to their catalog - The Birthday Party were an intense and terrifying presence in popular music. One of AustraliaвЂ™s most enduring artists, Nick Cave began his career in the late вЂ™70s, fronting The Boys Next Door, which in 1980 became the bluesy horror-punk band The Birthday Party. Nick CaveвЂ™s music is born of a unique vision, and that vision is of a truly fucked-up - if occasionally romantic - slice of humanity. Some might not succeed as greatly as others, but even that seems dismissive of his willingness to take risks and dive into territory that few are willing to explore. ThereвЂ™s not a single piece of music in his catalog that he half-assed. Ever since his earliest days fronting Australian punk band The Boys Next Door, and on through his tenure with The Birthday Party and eventual three-plus-decade run with The Bad Seeds, Cave has been in an elite league of musicians defined as much by their longevity as they are by innovation and idiosyncrasies. Nick Cave isnвЂ™t a performer or a songwriter - heвЂ™s an unstoppable force. I am Nick Cave and there is no going back to what I was.вЂќ And I think the good ones ultimately give themselves over completely to the process and there is no going back. вЂњSome of us rock stars, or whatever, we tend to have a need early on to be someone that we are not and to be someone different вЂ“ to feel different from the way we actually feel, especially when we are young.

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