Nick Cave: 10 Dark Masterpieces

7. Song Of Joy

http://youtu.be/c_Y__FTSJIY I can't think of many other artists for whom every album can be ranked in terms of its bodycount. Only Nick Cave could record an entire album worth of Murder Ballads and make it so consistently beguiling and occasionally hilarious. It says a lot that his most blood-soaked album is, with songs such as O'Malley's Bar, Stagger Lee and The Curse of Millhaven, also his funniest. But the first track €“ Song Of Joy €“ is no laughing matter. Whilst the majority of the songs aim for a sort of elegant gallows humour, Song Of Joy is genuinely unnerving. It details the story of a haunted man who one day came home to find that his entire family had been murdered in a disturbingly ritualistic manner, setting the scene for all that is to come in the most horrible way possible.