Whatever one might think of Nick Cave there is no doubt that he is a gifted songwriter and an amazing performer. B-Sides & Rarities is a 3-CD box set that brings together, funnily enough, all of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' B-Sides & Rarities.
When Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds hit their stride the results are breathtaking: the acoustic version of "The Mercy Seat," for example, is chilling in its intensity; the epic "O'Malley's Bar," which sees the narrator of the song brutally slaughtering the occupants of the aforementioned O'Malley's Bar is guiltily hilarious; "Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum" sees eerie violins out-eeried by an eerier narrative; etc...
Basically, there is too much good music here to list every song.
Of course, not everything catalogued on these three CDs is perfect, and it would be unreasonable to expect as much. I would estimate that only just over half of the material collected here is spectacular.
However, having said that, B-Sides & Rarities has enough going for it to make it a worthwhile purchase, and, at 30-odd dollars, you probably wouldn't regret picking it up.
For dedicated Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds fans it will probably fill whatever gaps they have in their collections, and, for casual fans like myself, it offers a very good introduction to this extremely talented and, unfortunately, much maligned, artist.
Much love and much respect to K.W. who saw fit to give this to me. Thank you very much. Peace.
Reviewed on Monday, 20 June 2005