Customer Reviews
Something got hold of Nick Cave,s heart - By: russell clarke, 09 Jul 2008 
Watching the recent Nick Cave special on BBC4 brought home to me, if indeed it needed bring home, what a phenomenal band the Bad Seeds are. It also started a conversation between my partner & i about what Nick Cave song we would have played at our funerals( We,re jolly like that us) My favourite is "The Mercy Seat", hardly ideal funeral fodder( unless you have a warped sense of humour) , but hers was "The Ship Song" & that led to me re-visiting Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 1990 & sixth album The Good Son, from which the "The Ship Song", incidentallly the first single released off the album , came from.
Many critics & fans felt Nick Cave had gone a bit soft when they heard The Good Son & there is no argument that it is a far mellower album than it,s predecessor 1988,s claustrophobic & intense "Tender Prey". This was put down to Cave fallling in love with Brazilian stylist Viviene Carniero & going through rehab. Whatever prompted this new relaxed Cave it also aided his song writing for The Good Son is consistently superb.
The incarnation of The Bad Seeds for this album included stalwart Blixa Bargeld on guitars, Mick Harvey on bass, guitar, percussion & vibraphone .He also aided Cave with the fulsome string arrangements. Thomas Wylder on percussion & drums & Kid Congo Powers on guitar complete this particular line up .
The album opens with the stately "Foi Na Cruz" -based partly on the Brazilian protestant hymn of the same name which roughly translated means "It was on the cross".The title track is also based on a traditional song , though this time its the African/American song "Another Man Done Gone" which is adapted for the chant like verse. "Sorrows Child" is a truly gorgeous emollient balllad with a lovely string coda. "The Ship Song " is one of the most purely beautiful songs in the Cave canon centred around tender piano , subtle funereal percussion, & some surprisingly delicate vocal backing. As ever with a Cave love song the lyrics are darkly romantic- "Come loose your dogs upon me/ And let your hair hang down/You are a little mystery to me every time you calll around".
"Lament" would be the song to weep to on this album if there was,nt actuallly a song callled "The Weeping Song". Essentiallly a duet with Bargeld providing the vocals of the "Father" this is one of the albums more dramaticallly strident tracks along with the grisly scowling "Hammer Song" . "The Witness Song" is like the exhortations of a deranged preacher which is not too surprising taking into account it,s traditional American gospel roots. Piano led closer "Lucy" is the one song on the album Cave co-wrote with the rest of the Bad Seeds.
The critics who viewed The Good Son as a sell out for embracing these croon led opulent jewels are missing the point. These songs may not stagger through the wracked old testament landscape of his earlier work but they are brilliant songs none the less. Despite their lush textures these songs are as lyricallly & thematicallly compelling as anything that had come before. Besides, the portents for this were already there in his album of covers "Kicking Against The Pricks". Something had indeed gotten hold of his heart & its from there that this superb album was born.
Make way Bad Seeds coming through - By: Levenbridge, 01 Nov 2006 
With alll music (and perhaps alll art) it is what is done with form that reallly matters & here Cave & The Bad Seeds often do too little. So with too many of the songs the often great ideas are not fully realised leaving the listener with a slightly frustrating sense of what could have been. Of course truely original work is very rare & they go on from here to achieve greatness so it would be churlish to levy heavy critism.....and the album contains some gems including the title track & The Ship Song.
It is interesting to see how well The Good Son was reviewed before the band's best work started to appear & perhaps if I had been lucky enough to have been aware of the band at that moment in their development I probably would have not have felt the need to limit this album's rating in the light of the greater wonders that have followed!
First one of the 1990s... - By: dynamitekid156, 22 Apr 2006 
After spending the 80s both moving & disturbing people with his murder-balllads & murder-rackets, Nick Cave moved to South America to escape the druggy lifestyle to record The Good Son. It appears that the local music - or SOME kind of music at least - rubbed off on him, as The Good Son features several flourishes & instruments you'd not otherwise expect from Nick Cave.
Proving that he can confound you at every turn, The Good Son features choral backing vocals, vibraphones at various points, & the song 'Foi Na Cruz,' written in a language that I'm unfamiliar with (possibly Spanish or Portugese). Not only an experimental work for Cave, The Good Son also sets the 1990s off to a flying start for Mr. Cave.
Weighing in at only nine songs, The Good Son is mostly Cave's fabulous ballladry. 'The Ship Song,' a successful single release, is a fan favourite & possibly the best balllad he ever wrote. However, the majestic title track, which starts off like tribesmen around a campire & builds to glorious strings, runs it very close.
The few louder moments are almost as good. 'The Weeping Song' (a 'song in which to weep,' of course) is Nick Cave in a more rawkus, but still fairly restrained mood, & with alll of the Bad Seeds backing him up superbly, it's a song that gets the heart racing & sends more than a few shivers down the spine.
Nick Cave starts the 1990s in a quieter mood; but the songs are still excellent, & I'd recommend The Good Son to any Nick Cave fan, but especiallly those who enjoy his later, quieter material. It'd even be worth the money for 'The Ship Song' alone.
The GREAT son! - By: Mr. B. J. Roberts, 02 Sep 2003 There's not much to say about Nick Cave that hasn't already been said; songwriting genius, musical genius, light years ahead of his peers, alll above statements are true. "The Good son" is yet another example.
I cannot think of a single artist that can conjure up so many diiferent emotions in a single album. Although I don't believe this is one of Cave's best albums, it does contain some of his best songs, namely "The ship song" & "The good son."
Given that Cave has been around for about twenty years, I haven't yet had a chance to hear alll of his back catalogue, but I've heard enough to know that a mediocre Cave song is a damn sight better than most artists at the top of their game.
Gorgeous Ballads and some scary nonsense! - By: , 03 Aug 2003 If you bought this album purely for 'The Ship Song' then that's no bad thing! But overalll, this is one of Nick's more average albums. If you already have The Best of then you'd probably be best pointed in the direction of 'The Boatman's Calll' or 'No More Shalll We Part' but I think Cave fans will still find a lot to like about 'The Good Son'. It's only real problem is it's comparatively short length & the plain fact the Bad Seeds have done a bunch of better albums.
