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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds-No More Shall We Part

Posted March 27, 2007 at 10:41 pm by Severed Head

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds-No More Shall We Part

I have been listening to this because I’m addicted to acoustic music a lot, lately. And the lyrics are fucking amazing on this album. I guess it was written after Nick started overcoming an addiction to cocaine. Anyway, hope you like this review or whatever. Doesn’t really rate the quality. I talk about the lyrics and try and interpret the meanings a lot. It’s just an album I like, and I am here talking about it. Also, in a way, it’s a bit of a concept album because they’re all piano songs. Mostly acoustic and soft and sad, but there are exceptions. Sometimes the exceptions are the best songs on here too.

1. As I Sat Sadly By Her Side

Never really cared a lot for this song… It’s beautiful in its own way, but it’s a bit more anxious than I’d like. I do appreciate the lyrics a lot more than I once did. This part especially made a lot of sense to me

All outward motion connects to nothing
For each is concerned with their immediate need
Witness the man reaching up from the gutter
See the other one stumbling on who cannot see

Actually fucking brilliant lyrics. All about sitting and watching the world and looking at what a bad place it is, and then:

Then she drew the curtains down
And said, “When will you ever learn
That what happens there beyond the glass
Is simply none of your concern?
God has given you but one heart
You are not a home for the hearts of your brothers

And God does not care for your benevolence
Anymore than he cares for the lack of it in others
Nor does he care for you to sit
At windows in judgment of the world he created
While sorrows pile up around you
Ugly, useless, and over-inflated

Kind of God’s way of looking at depression I guess. Or hell, anyone’s in a way. I know exactly what he means though, and I tend to get “ugly, useless, and over-inflated” worrying about everything, while everything around me gets worse

2. And No More Shall We Part

Hm. Sounds like a love song at first, but I think he’s either talking to God, or maybe just saying that he and his love will never part anymore because they will never be together again anyway. Really trying to look at it in a positive way

And no more shall we part
The contracts are drawn up, the ring is locked upon the finger
And never again will my letters start
Sadly, or in the depths of winter

I like the subtle difference in how he originally says “And all of the birds will sing to your beautiful heart, upon the bough”, and then, later “And all of those birds would’ve sung to your beautiful heart anyhow.” He’s really looking for help in the one. Again, I really used to hate this song. Now, I like it a lot more.

3. Hallelujah

A really sad story about going out into the world, and finding everything you want and everything you need, but not really going for it out of fear. Staying in the comfort of your home and hiding away, and living that way, instead of taking any risks. Lyrically, in a way, a bit like Fitter Happier. He’s living the life of a pig in a cage on antibiotics.

Now, you might think it wise to risk it all
Throw caution to the reckless wind
But with her hot cocoa and her medication
My nurse had been my one salvation
So I turned back home
I turned back home
I turned back home
Singing my song

(Hallelujah) The tears are welling in my eyes again
(Hallelujah) I need twenty big buckets to catch them in
(Hallelujah) And twenty pretty girls to carry them down
(Hallelujah) And twenty deep holes to bury them in

4. Love Letter

Never really “got” this song, but now that I have really looked into it, I think it’s about a desperate, lonely man, sending a letter hoping it will save everything in his relationship.

I hold this letter in my hand
A plea, a petition, a kind of prayer
I hope it does as I have planned
Losing her again is more than I can bear
I kiss the cold, white envelope
I press my lips against her name
Two hundred words. We live in hope
The sky hangs heavy with rain

A wicked wind whips up the hill
A handful of hopeful words
I love her and I always will
The sky is ready to burst
Said something I did not mean to say
Said something I did not mean to say
Said something I did not mean to say
It all came out the wrong way

And then, feeling that the letter doesn’t at all do justice, and thinking he fucked up, and could’ve done it better. Really pretty song though.

5. Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow

Never got this song at all. I always thought it was kind of funny, in a way, though I don’t think Nick meant it that way at all. The people on songmeanings.net say it could be about cocaine or some sort of massacre. The massacre because a picture in the video is of some Russian dictator or something. Either way kind of makes sense. I personally like the massacre one, though I don’t think that was Nick’s intent. Knowing his past with cocaine, I think the last lines make a lot of sense.

Save yourself! Help yourself!
Save yourself! Help yourself!
Save yourself! Help yourself!
Save yourself! Help yourself!

A recovering addict has to at a point, help/save himself. And that is Nick! Or maybe it’s that all of these people are dead and buried and hidden, and someone, something is telling him “get the hell out of there!”

I waved to my neighbour
My neighbour waved to me
But my neighbour
Is my enemy
I kept waving my arms
Till I could not see
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow

This part always made me laugh. But anyway, maybe it’s just the tendency of the government to try to pit people against each other? Or the weird illusions and paranoia one has when on drugs? Not really sure. The talking to a doctor parts do seem to refer to addiction though. Anyway, it’s not literally snow, like I had alawys previously though. Hah. I’m such an idiot.

6. God Is In The House

This one seems to really change meanings. At first, it seems to mean God is here! Don’t be scared. But I guess, he is saying, in a way “Be quiet. Let God give you strength,” but in the end, he has been waiting for a long time, and really starting to lose it. The chorus starts out like this:

God is in the house
God is in the house
No cause for worry now
God is in the house

The next choruses all keep the “God is in the house” bit, but change the 3rd line to, in order:

And no one’s left in doubt

Any day now He’ll come out

Oh I wish He would come out

The song gets really quiet in the end to the point where he is whispering and straining his voice. I really like that aspect.

7. Oh My Lord

I really love the melody of this song. The constant rising melody at every line. Really shows a sense of desperation. And it builds up so beautifully to something really loud and panicked. In a way, I think it’s maybe about really losing yourself. Looking at yourself in the mirror, and going “Who the fuck is that? What have I been doing all this time?” and just having this really horrible sense of desperation and not knowing what to do. This song is really great. And then at the end, he says “Be careful. Don’t do something stupid in this act of desperation, because it’s really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel sometimes.” I love the really messy, noisy guitar at the end. Starts out so simply with the soft, beautiful piano, and builds until it’s fucking heavy! And then back into the melody. Oh, man. Powerful!

8. Sweetheart Come

God, I love this song. It’s one of the few really uplifting and somewhat happy songs. Not really, though. More like a sad kind of acceptance. A love song. I really like the last verse the most. Really pretty song too. I really like this style of drumming. Really gentle and timid.

Come over here, babe
It ain’t that bad
I don’t claim to understand
The troubles that you’ve had
But the dogs you say they fed you to
Lay their muzzles in your lap
And the lions that they led you to
Lie down and take a nap
The ones you fear are wind and air
And I love you without measure
It seems we can be happy now
Be it better late than never

Walk with me now under the stars
For it’s a clear and easy pleasure
And be happy in my company
For I love you without measure
Walk with me now under the stars
It’s a safe and easy pleasure
It seems we can be happy now
It’s late but it ain’t never
It’s late but it ain’t never
It’s late but it ain’t never

This song holds a special place in my heart because of the lyrics. They were exactly my thoughts earlier today, though I won’t say about what exactly.

9. The Sorrowful Wife

I think this one is fairly simple. This is a really sad, pretty song again. I like it a lot. The high, droning piano that goes onto play a really beautiful melody is really great. And then the interaction with the strings and the guitar. Anyway, it’s about a man who really fucks up this marriage by not keeping some promise, and the possibility that their relationship may well have been doomed from the start. And this song is also a lot about the regret that goes with that. I really love how that piano helps transition into the heavier stuff. This song is so powerful! This is a really good one.

10. We Came Along This Road

This is a really fucking depressing, but really pretty song, that’s really true to itself. I think the lyrics are fairly self-explanatory. A relationship where a husband’s wife is cheating on him, and he feels this really horrible sense of betrayal.

I left by the back door
With my wife’s lover’s smoking gun
I don’t know what I was hoping for
I hit the road at a run
I was your lover
I was your man
There never was no other
I was your friend
Till we came along this road
Till we came along this road
Till we came along this road

I ain’t sent you no letters, Ma
But I’m looking quite a trip
The world spinning beneath me, Ma
Guns blazing at my hip
You were my lover
You were my friend
There never was no other
I hope you understand
Till we came along this road
Till we came along this road
Till we came along this road

This song is really sorrowful. Again, relaly powerful, but not in the way that The Sorrowful Wife or Oh My Lord. Emotionally a lot more powerful, without necessarily the loud heaviness the other ones have. Oh man, I forgot how good this CD was until I got halfway through it, and since then, I have loved every song. Going back to Ma for comfort. Cliche and whatever, but still really powerful. The strings are really good here too.

11. Gates To The Garden

Not really sure about this song at all! Really pretty though, and really powerful imagery, I think. I think the gates of the garden are definitely some sort of metaphor, probably religious, but I’m not sure. Also, I don’t get the allusion to this St. Edmunds. Just some sort of clock?

Fugitive fathers, sickly infants, decent mothers
Runaways and suicidal lovers
Assorted boxes of ordinary bones
Of aborted plans and sudden shattered hopes
In unlucky rows, up to the gates of the garden
In unhappy rows, up to the gates of the garden
In unlucky rows, up to the gates of the garden

Won’t you meet me at the gates
Won’t you meet me at the gates
Won’t you meet me at the gates
To the garden

I think maybe it might be about death. A lot of that kind of imagery. Bells tolling, bones! It definitely is! Boxes of ordinary bones? Skeletons buried? Duh! How did I not get this before? They are in a cemetary, quite possibly dead. Waiting to go to heaven. I think. Hmm. Not clear on all the details, but I’m fairly confident on that.

12. Darker With The Day

My favorite on this CD, definitely. Really beautiful piano and acoustic instruments, and then the melody, and the nature/rhythm of his singing, as well as the sorrow in his voice. And the lyrics. Fucking heartbreaking. Fucking really amazing.

As so with that, I thought I’d take a final walk
The tide of public opinion had started to abate
The neighbours, bless them, had turned out to be all talk
I could see their frightened faces
peering at me through the gate

Babe
It seems so long
Since you went away
And I
Just got to say
That it grows darker with the day

Either about death, or at least the end of some sort of relationship. The church part, I think really shows how the modern church really lets so many people down, in a way, and how dark the nature of man is. Or just the nature of the world in general. Also, the first line is a bit ambiguous, but I don’t think it’s about suicide, though it damn well could be. I like how it changes from past to present tense.

Overall, No More Shall We Part is a really bloody great album, but the last six songs are where it really shines. Really sad though, and I think, in a way, really easy to relate to, when you get that sinking, sad feeling. Or one of them that’s portrayed in this album, at least.

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