- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Tender Prey is the band’s fifth album and the one that established Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds high in the musical pantheon.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Tender Prey (1988): Australian musician and spoken-word artist Nick Cave assembled a post-punk supergroup for his backing band after toiling in the punk rock world for several years. His blend of blues, gospel, and hard rock is unmatched elsewhere, as are his bleak worldview and his searing baritone vocals. Tender Prey is the band’s fifth album and the one that established Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds high in the musical pantheon. I first encountered the group when I saw the video for the opening track on this album “The Mercy Seat” several times on the MTV alternative-rock program 120 Minutes.
“The Mercy Seat” is a one-of-a-kind recording, written from the standpoint of a condemned man who has a vision of the electric chair as though it were the Throne of God. After a mostly mumbled introduction, the song is primarily the chorus repeated powerfully with savvy lyric changes; but I would have enjoyed the song if it extended to twice its 7-minute length. The other songs on the album build on this novel take on religion.