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Nocturama - Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Nocturama Image
Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.2 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Summary: Nick Cave & co. return for a follow up to 2001's 'No More Shall We Part.'

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 26
  3. Negative: 0 out of 26
  1. Alternative Press
    100
    This journey to Nocturama's not to be missed. [March 2003, p.88]
    All this publication's reviews
  2. Launch.com
    90
    At first listen a morose rumination on the many shapes of love, the album slowly unfurls as a grand, almost gothic epic of vast proportion and luxurious significance.
  3. Neumu.net
    60
    Nick Cave, no mistake about it, is still a major talent, and Nocturama isn't nearly as bad a mid-career flop as Lou Reed's Mistrial or David Bowie's Never Let Me Down.... But nevertheless, this is also far from essential Nick Cave, as most longtime fans will immediately discern.

See all 26 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. BrendanD
    9
    It's taken me a long time to come to this conclusion, but Nick Cave is the greatest artist of all time. He did anger exactly right with The Birthday Party, a band that basically took "Lady Godiva's Operation" and turned it into a fucked-up party. When the Birthday Party exploded/imploded/blew up, the Bad Seeds picked up the slack, and they've been releasing classic album after classic album since 1984. Maybe the classic records have just made me a fanboy, but I honestly believe that Cave has done better since the mid-'90s than he did ever before. "Murder Ballads" is one of the best albums of all time, and "No More Shall We Part" is, far from the cringe-worthy schlock most old-school Birthday Party and early Bad Seeds fans want to call it, a beautiful, heartfelt, and darkly sinister record. "Nocturama" is not as good as either of these. It is, however, pretty damned good. "Babe I'm On Fire" isn't lame or cringe-worthy, and it's not fun. It's Cave's weird sense of humor that shine through, however, and you can never be 100% sure if he's sincere or not. I prefer to believe not, but it's hard and beautiful and dark all the same.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. drownsoda
    4
    A slipperly slope for a genius of huge proportions, Nocturama is Cave's musicial rock bottom. Setting off a wave of amateur songs and an earthquake of lost potential, it builds up to nothing more than a half-decent lead single that makes those seeds look horrible.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. madsl
    2
    surely the worst cave album ever! even the rather dreadful "no more shall we part" somehow shines in comparison to this half-baked and bland album. The ridiculous finale of "Babe I'm om fire" is not the fun it was probably intended to be, it is just lame and cringeworthy.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

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