For a long time now I've been a fan of Nick Cave, and having watched the movie “The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford” --- good movie, by the way --- and listening to his haunting soundtrack to it, I naturally jumped on this the moment it was released. Now, reading a little more about the score to a movie I've not seen this time, I'm not quite regretting it, but what is coming across rather clearly from what I've read is that this is not likely to be the sort of bleak, droning, plaintive instrumental music I've come to expect from Australia's Duke of Darkness. In fact, it seems most if not all of it is other than instrumental, and Cave and Bad Seeds collaborator Warren Ellis have chosen a number of cover versions of songs which, though they don't necessarily come from the period in which the movie is set --- the thirties --- reflect for them a sense of that time.
And they've had a country bluegrass legend sing them. Or some of them. Or tried to get him to sing. Seems it wasn't such an easy thing, by all accounts. Nevertheless, as is kind of expected when you push play on a Cave recording, it's bound to be an adventure of discovery, shock, perhaps unease, but never boredom.
Lawless (Motion Picture Soundtrack) --- Nick Cave and Warren Ellis --- 2012 (Sony Masterworks)
Is it, I wonder, a mistake to try to review a score to a movie I've never seen, and know little if anything about? Is this a case of lack of research, preparation? Ah but then, when can you ever truly prepare yourself for a new outing from Nick Cave? No matter what you think you may be about to hear, he almost always turns the tables on you, like some dark magician playing macabre sleight of hand, and twisting your head around before you even notice your neck is broken. So really, will it really matter that I know nothing about this movie beyond its strapline and a very vague and general description?
Well it certainly opens on a bluegrass song, with banjo and fiddle taking in “Fire and brimstone”, Link Wray's song featuring the Screaming Trees' Mark Lanegan on vocals. Cave, it appears, does not sing on some of the tracks here, as according to himself, “the last thing I wanted was to listen to my ****ing voice the whole time we were working on it!” It's an edgy, uptempo track to kick off, with a great sense of foreboding and doom, and not a million miles removed from the sort of thing you might expect Cave to record himself. Still well in Cave territory while gingerly stepping over to Waits country, “Burnin' hell” is a powerful jamboree with tons of energy, a little confused at times but great fun, with Cave at his most manic and clearly enjoying himself.
In a total change then, both of tempo and style, “Sure 'nuff yes I do” is given an acapella treatment by bluegrass star Ralph Stanley, though whether Captain Beefheart would have approved I can't say. It's a welcome respite from the mania of the first two tracks and slows things down nicely. The beautiful voice of Emmylou Harris is very welcome in the (not surprisingly) country flavoured “Fire in the blood”, but sadly it's only just over a minute long, then the next classic to get the Cave treatment is Velvet Underground's “White light/white heat”, with more fiddles and thumping drums, and Lanegan reprising his vocal role, then Emmylou is back for “Cosmonaut”, and this time we get the pleasure of her company for a much more reasonable time, as the song lasts almost four minutes. Driven on a banjo/mandolin melody, it's uptempo but kind of mid-paced too, and Emmylou certainly makes the song. I tell ya, for someone sixty-five years old this year, she's still got the pipes! Lovely mandolin solo too, would assume maybe from Warren Ellis, then we're into a kind of reprise of “Fire in the blood”, with this time Townes Van Zandt's “Snake Song” added in.
This features all four of the main singers, minus Lanegan, starting off in acapella style with Stanley, slow quiet organ coming up slowly behind him as he sings, then acoustic guitar as Emmylou comes in, later some lovely electric guitar from Nick and those powerful organ chords from Warren Ellis, and with some beautiful evocative piano typical of Cave songs, “So you'll aim towards the sky” is a gorgeous little ballad, a cover of the Grandaddy song, featuring more of Emmylou's undeniable prowess and charisma, with a real saloon feel to it, almost as if she were singing on stage in some disreputable drinkin' hole in the old west. There's a really bleak feel to it too, almost a feeling of being lost and in despair, and Emmylou's pained, forlorn vocal really underlines this.
In many ways, sadly, that's it. The album is then mostly filled up by unused takes, mainly versions of the songs on which Ralph Stanley refused to, or could not, sing, and they're covered by the other vocalists. It's interesting, a way of not wasting those takes, but given the fact that up to now there have only been eight tracks, (admittedly great ones), and the album contains fourteen ... well, I just feel a little shortchanged somehow. Which is not to say that Emmylou's almost acapella version of “Fire in the sky” is not brilliant and moving, but really, at only just over a minute, did we need a third version? It is interesting though to hear Stanley actually sing over music once, and his version of the opener, “Fire and brimstone”, is certainly a lot more laidback and laconic than the version that began the album. I think I prefer the first one though.
Mark Lanegan's version of “Sure 'nuff yes I do” is probably closer to Beefheart's original than the one attempted by Stanley, certainly has a lot more energy and enthusiasm and is, well, more fun, with Ellis's fiddle back on top form, then Mister Bluegrass is back to do an acoustic version of the Velvet song again, which I personally think adds nothing to it, but there's one more original song to go before we close, with keening violin from Warren Ellis and atmospheric keys, and “End crawl” is a gentle, somewhat ambient instrumental that would I think have closed this album quite well, but it's followed by a Willie Nelson song, “Midnight run”, with the man himself on vocals.
Having not seen the movie, I have to say that although this album is not bad, it would not convince me to go see “Lawless”. As a soundtrack it's certainly interesting, though generally speaking not really in the sort of arena I usually tend to frequent. As a Cave-driven project it's different and surprising, as I guess I should really expect, but quite removed from the sort of thing I'm used to hearing from him. It wouldn't be anywhere close to a favourite album of mine, and whether or not I'll even listen to it again is in doubt, but you have to give Cave and Ellis marks both for originality and for pinning down music that really does evoke the Prohibition era of America.
TRACKLISTING
1. Fire and brimstone
2. Burnin' Hell
3. Fire in the blood
4. White light/white heat
5. Sure 'nuff yes I do
6. Cosmonaut
7. Fire in the blood/Snake song
8. So you'll aim towards the sky
9. Fire in the blood
10. Fire and brimstone
11. Sure 'nuff yes I do
12. White light/white heat
13. End crawl
14. Midnight run