No More Shall We Part

"As I Sat Sadly By Her Side" is my favourite song, it's beautifully written and will let your thoughts drift along a country road in your mind. "We Came Along This Road" is also a wonderful song to listen to, and is also another favourite of mine. The rest is also wonderful. However, different songs evoke different feelings in different people.

If you're looking for songs that grown on you, and everytime you put them on you feel as though you are hearing it for the first time -- then this is the album for you.


Absolute perfection   April 14, 2004
Jared M. Stein (Orem, UT United States)
I've not much to say about this album except that this may well be the culmination of Nick Cave's career. Far more serious and tame than Bad Seeds' earlier outings, "No More Shall We Part" is perhaps the most challenging album for "hardcore" fans, but I find that the maturation of sound and lyrics has captured the band's infinite potential, and then some.


Cave's "Blood on the Tracks"   February 22, 2004
S. Harris (Spotsylvania, VA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is a great album. The intelligence of the lyrics alone put this up there with Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks," but it's more personal, and thus more immediate than even that great Dylan effort (and Cave's a better singer). The religious themes of Cave's songs (often allegories, such as "Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow"(spiritual blindness)) may take some listener's by surprise, but song craft and story telling quickly take over. In many of the songs, the gentle harmonies of Anna and Kate McGarrigle wrap around Cave's singing, elevating them even further. This assistance is particularly dramatic in "O My Lord."

I think it's fair to assume that Nick Cave, at this point in his career and life, is a Christian. But he's the kind of Christian that doesn't seek a comfortable faith. Like Simone ("Waiting For God") Weil, he sees the importance of the outcast, the outsider, who believes, but on terms that are true to themselves - and to God. The lyrics of "God is in the House" takes direct aim at suburban churchgoers who seek a fear-free life in their "little church," which is of course painted white. Putting God in a manufactured box is ridiculous, and that is Cave's sarcastic point. But sarcasm is only a small part of "No More Shall We Part." Overall, there is the sense of hard won truths in an ongoing journey, delivered beautifully for the listener to ponder over, and maybe even as prompt toward prayer.

As a side note, in a way it's a shame that there's been such controversy over whether or not Evanescent is a "Christian" band (read the lyrics, not their public statements), though I think the controversy is rooted more in that group's hesitancy on how to respond, and whether the wrong response would thus kill their just-starting careers . Evanescent could take some tips by looking at the careers of Nick Cave, T-Bone Burnett, Julie (and Buddy) Miller, the late Johnny Cash, and others (Dylan?). Amy Lee, it's OK to believe - and rock. Stay true, the rest will sort itself out.


The Greatest CD on Earth   November 7, 2003
The songs flow with a story of his slow descent into madness, and it's lyrics are so well written they're hard to get out of your head. There's nothing that can equal this, even with his later albums... This is the peak, the magnum opus, of his career.


No More Shall We Part by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds   August 20, 2003
Juergen (The Netherlands)
'No more shall we part' is just a pretty good record. Anyone who enjoyed 'The boatman's call' will surely enjoy this one. I would even suggest that it is better than 'The boatman's call' as there are no fillers on it (like 'green eyes' and 'black hair' on 'The boatman's call'). Also there is no lack of 'Bad Seeds' on this one, as there is on 'The boatman's call' wich sounds more like a Nick Cave solo effort. As on all of Nick Cave's albums, the lyrics are extraordinary. Buy it, you won't regret it.