After the intense Tender Prey, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds returned in 1990 with The Good Son. It initially feels a little disappointing after the heights of its predecessor. Cave is very much in balladeer mode here on tracks like Foi Na Cruz and The Ship Song. The title track morphs from chain-gang chant, through Cave rant to become a sort of torch song. It sounds all over the shop.
They turn in some really dramatic goth-ballads, like Sorrow's Child and The Weeping Song. The Hammer Song dials up the intensity with vibraphone and crashing percussion, while Lament is almost the quintessential Cave ballad with its sweeping faux-strings. They have time to fit in the glam-stomp of The Witness Song before returning to crooning on Lucy.
It's probably the first Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album in their back catalogue that you could play to your parents/grandparents/whoever but after the thrills of Tender Prey, this one suffers by comparison. Better to take this one on its own merits and let it wash over you.
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