Released in 1996 Murder Ballads was the band’s biggest commercial success at the time of its release, garnering much attention from Nick Cave’s lethal duet with Kylie Minogue on Where The Wild Roses Grow. Alongside the originals, the album features startling re-workings of traditional songs like Stagger Lee and Henry Lee. Additional guest singers include PJ Harvey and Shane MacGowan.

Fourteen classic Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds albums have been made available for the first time on heavyweight 180g vinyl. Each album has been re-mastered (overseen by Mick Harvey, former Bad Seed and founder member), and all album cover artwork reflects the original release. These reissues have excellent quality concerning mastering and pressing, not to be missed.

Murder Ballads is the ninth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 1996 on Mute Records. As its title suggests, the album consists of new and traditional murder ballads, a genre of songs that relays the details (and often consequences) of crimes of passion. "Where the Wild Roses Grow," a duet featuring Cave singing with Kylie Minogue, was a hit single and received two ARIA Awards in 1996. Other prominent guest musicians on the album include PJ Harvey and Shane MacGowan.

Murder Ballads was the band's biggest commercial success to date, most likely helped by the unexpected repeated airplay of the "Where the Wild Roses Grow" video on MTV. MTV even nominated Cave for their "best male artist" award of that year, though this nomination was later withdrawn at Cave's request.

The first song written for the album was "O'Malley's Bar", when the band was recording Henry's Dream. Recordings (in London and Melbourne) were done towards the end of the Let Love In sessions, and there was some thought that the early material could be made into a film with John Hillcoat. Cave said, "I was going around everywhere with letters of intent, pushing them at everyone I knew, saying 'Do you want to be in this film?"


Track Listing:

Side A
01. Song of Joy
02. Henry Lee
03. Lovely Creature
04. Stagger Lee

Side B
05. Where the Wild Roses Grow
06. The Curse of Millhaven
07. The Kindness of Strangers
08. Crow Jane

Side C
09. O'Malley's Bar
10. Death is not the End

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