The 1990s were very good to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Where the previous decade saw Cave successfully transition out of the Birthday Party's combustible punk toward a more urbane, theatrical brand of rock, the 90s elevated him to the realm of archetype and institution. He successfully party-crashed Hollywood and 'Top of the Pops', all while the college-radio charts filled up with emergent artists-- PJ Harvey, Tindersticks, Afghan Whigs-- cut from the Bad Seeds' black-velvet cloth. The Bad Seeds' mid-90s pinnacle forms the basis of the latest round of Mute's excellent reissue series, which include vividly remastered versions of the original albums, along with a 5.1 surround sound mix, B-sides, official videos, and the latest installments of Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's illuminating fan-testimonial documentaries, Do You Love Me Like I Love You? Autocom delphi 20133 keygen activator download. The title of the film series is taken from the two-part song that opens and closes Let Love In, an authoritative show of force that was perfectly timed for the Bad Seeds' insurrectionary appearance on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour. The Bad Seeds had always traded in high drama and dissonance, but never before had they sounded this imposingly heavy-- the lecherous intimations of 'Do You Love Me?' Explode into a torrent of chain-gang vocals and drummer Thomas Wydler's machine-gunned snare rolls, while 'Loverman' triggers its quiet-to-loud eruptions so masterfully, Metallica would later cover the song to the surprise of no one.

But amid Let Love In's ballast, you can hear Cave's increased adeptness at exploring his fascinations using sly, pitch-black humor instead of transgressive shock tactics. 'Red Right Hand'-- the future theme song of the Scream film franchise-- sets its serial-killer narrative to a seductive swampy groove, and the beautiful piano ballad 'Nobody's Baby Now' is a work of such wry, understated elegance, Cave originally thought of giving it to Johnny Cash.

As Let Love In's signature tracks proved, Cave's love songs could easily turn into death songs, so it was inevitable that he'd devote an entire album to exploring that symbiotic relationship. Murder Ballads has a title so obvious and self-defining, it's amazing that it took the Bad Seeds nine albums to use it. And the last thing you could accuse Cave of is false advertising: Dozens of characters lose their lives over the course of the album, which updates infamous folk tales like 'Stagger Lee' with enough profanity and gratuitous violence to satisfy the bloodlusty standards of the post-gangsta rap/Quentin Tarantino era. But the Bad Seeds' most lyrically depraved record is also their most musically ornate and accessible, with the band expanding to accommodate Dirty Three violinist Warren Ellis and former Cramps/Sonic Youth stickman Jim Sclavunos (as second percussionist), plus a pair of smoldering duets with PJ Harvey ('Henry Lee') and Kylie Minogue (the unlikely MTV hit 'Where the Wild Roses Grow'). In fact, with its densely detailed storylines, heart-racing epics ('Song of Joy', 'The Curse of Millhaven') and cheeky curtain-closing cover of Bob Dylan's born-again anthem 'Death Is Not the End', it's hard not to imagine Murder Ballads as some perverse, alternate-universe West End musical production. But look past its comically over-the-top presentation and you realize Cave isn't simply indulging in some subversive genre exercise.