- Record Label: Anti
- Release Date: Oct 26, 2004
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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An aesthetic watermark for Cave, a true high point in a long career that is ever looking forward.
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In truth, a couple tracks could have been cut to turn this into an epic single-disc release of huge proportions, but it's still the best work that Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds have done since Murder Ballads.
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Alternative PressTwo masterpieces. [Dec 2004, p.158]
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Ambitious and uneven.
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BlenderThe kind of boiling, roiling blues the Bad Seeds haven't cooked up in years. [Nov 2004, p.131]
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And with so much music, some cuts solidly fail, and some stand up to the best in the Bad Seeds canon.
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A fragrant bouquet of melody, light, love and naughtiness wrapped in an unfamiliar joie de vivre.
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While the first offering holds a quite tangible anger and general gloom within, 'The Lyre of Orpheus is a much more mellow affair, contemplating existentialism and the like.
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The Bad Seeds have not made a record this ambitious, well, ever, and the results are rewarding, thoughtful and challenging.
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He gets all beautiful on your ass for the Orpheus portion of this double-disc set, then explodes with a pounding intensity on Abattoir Blues that'll knock your socks off.
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Entertainment WeeklyCave... remains a singular sensation. [29 Oct 2004, p.69]
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FilterThis is not Cave's best work by any means, but these songs do showcase his impressive range as a lyricist, performer and musician. [#12, p.100]
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Cave's songwriting chops and incisive lyrics have, if anything, grown stronger.
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MojoThe scope and breadth is startling. [Oct 2004, p.94]
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New Musical Express (NME)This is murderously good stuff. [25 Sep 2004, p.64]
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Aside from the power of the music and lyrics, the set draws on Cave’s compelling persona: part priest, part sideshow barker--crooning one moment and eviscerating the next. While this has always been the core of his talent, on Abattoir/Lyre it is particularly rich and rewarding.
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It would be foolish, however, to think that you could get through a Nick Cave project this ambitious without a few clunkers. At least here Cave's missteps occur when his reach exceeds his grasp, and the songs that fail manage to do so dramatically rather than boringly. [average of scores of 78 for 'Abattoir' and 74 for 'Orpheus']
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'Abattoir Blues' is weirdly full of wonderment, and - get this - 'The Lyre of Orpheus' is even more joyful! And they both kick Nocturama's arse full of buttonholes.
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So fresh, so revelatory, so alive.
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Q MagazineBoth [discs] are full of surprises. [Oct 2004, p.115]
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The Orpheus disc is quieter, and Blues is slightly more lewd, but taken together this may be the scariest album about panties, gorillas and bloody gods ever recorded.
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Unsurprisingly, Cave's overriding thematic goal of reconciling morality with desire on Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus falls short of its mark. But with such a complex and difficult target, that's to be expected.
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SpinThe Lyre Of Orpheus is effectively Abattoir spillover: more mellow, less grand in conception, but--somehow--more pretentious in execution. [Dec 2004, p.118]
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Abattoir/Orpheus is not as immediate as some of Cave's previous triumphs, but you'll take pleasure in unearthing new sentiments and innuendo within its walls.
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It’s easy to get over-eager about a decent album that appears after some significantly less magnificent efforts, and perhaps that’s precisely what I’ve just done. But I don’t especially care. What I hear throughout this release, and what I’m latching so strongly onto, is my own imagined version of what a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds record should be like.
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There's hardly any drop in quality over the discs' 17 tracks, and Cave maintains his ability to startle.
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An entirely unique return to form.
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As a word of warning, though, this brilliant, but lengthy double album may not be the best beginner's guide to Nick Cave. However, for anyone who is a fan of the duration of his career, this album rewards the listener with a bit of the best of everything he has to offer.
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Cave has hinted at a more mature sound on the last few records; here, it comes across in richer, bolder arrangements, the result of his band's more active role in developing the songs.
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Under The RadarFeels much like a natural extension of 2001's No More Shall We Part and the emotional urgency found there. [#7; average of scores of 60 for 'Abattoir' and 70 for 'Orpheus']
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 56 out of 62
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Mixed: 4 out of 62
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Negative: 2 out of 62
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Jan 16, 2016
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Jul 11, 2013
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Aug 27, 2010