Henry's Dream by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

This is pretty much everything that you want from a Nick Cave album - a couple of drunken torch songs, a couple of murder ballads and plenty of growling and prowling. Musically, the sound is boosted the addition of cello and violins on a couple of tracks, and some nice organ sounds combined with cicadas on “Christina the Astonishing” giving the effect of a sinister small town at night.

Whether you like it or not will very much depend on your opinion of Nick Cave. I love his stuff, but this feels like a middling example of his work - perfectly fine, but not quite up there with his best albums (arguing about those is left as an exercise for the constant reader). This album did remind me in places (particularly on the tracks with the strings) of Scott Walker, which is a good thing.

I listened twice, and enjoyed it more the second time around. Currently at three stars but knocking on the door of four.