Nick Cave Reissues

Hard to believe this nerdy-looking goth kid eventually became the hard-as-nails, ‘Red Right Hand’ Nick Cave we’ve all grown to love, isn’t it?

This is another one of those announcements that somehow flew under my radar until I took a closer look at my emails. How could I have missed it! The mere mention of Nick Cave should send off fireworks in my brain.

And even though remasters developed a rather touchy reputation in the 90s, it seems that a lot of engineers have finally figured out how to do them correctly. I recently picked up several Killing Joke remasters (Fire Dances and Night Time) that were absolutely perfect. Brilliant sound without compressing everything to hell by simply turning up the volume on every instrument (and nothing like some of the remasters I picked up in the mid-to-late 90s that ended up sounding far worse than the originals). I’m confident Mute has taken great care with Nick Cave, though I haven’t actually heard these yet.

The albums receiving the deluxe treatment are Cave & the Seeds first four – From Her To Eternity, The Firstborn Is Dead, Kicking Against the Pricks and Your Funeral… My Trial. Each deluxe double-disc collector’s edition contains the remastered stereo album, the new surround mix (5.1), a specially commissioned short film made by acclaimed UK artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, plus the b-sides from the singles and exclusive sleeve notes.

The albums were due to be released by Mute on April 7th, though a quick scan of Amazon doesn’t show them as being available there until May 19th. Still, a visit to your local record shop might be in order!

Oh, and I think I’ve touted it before, but if you haven’t checked out Cave’s side project with various members of the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, you really should. It’s brilliant, raw stuff..

Tags: Mute Records, nick cave, reissues, remastered