I've often wondered (though not so much as to actually stop and count) the body count on Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads. So I'm grateful for Dele Fadele for doing the maths: 75 people, apparently, plus one dog.
Fadele's article - written for the Quietus in 2016 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the album's release and now republished for the thirtieth - draws parallels between the record and gangsta rap, noting that ultimately both have their roots in the darkest ghetto blues. However, he makes a point of noting the starkly different reception afforded to Murder Ballads and your average gangsta rap album.
Murder Ballads is certainly not for the faint hearted. I may have been wooed by the improbable duet with Kylie Minogue, 'Where The Wild Roses Grow' (incidentally, not a song I ever expected to hear sung at a local karaoke night - credit to former Buzz editor Fedor and his partner Isa for taking it on), but ultimately that too involves Kylie's character meeting a grisly end. 'Stagger Lee' and 'O'Malley's Bar' are in particular a lot to take, as violent linguistically and musically as the bloody tales they tell.
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