This can be seen as the third installment in the series of Nick Cave albums that started with 1997's THE BOATMAN'S CALL; like it's two predecessors, NOCTURAMA is full of stately piano ballads, and largely absent of the barbed-wire rantings that typified Cave's earlier recordings. While past albums painted Cave as the grisly Edgar Allen Poe of rock, NOCTURAMA and its brethren take a marked turn toward more personal, sometimes even romantic themes. Naturally there's still an underlying darkness and disturbance throughout, but overall Cave seems to have turned himself into something of a Bacharach for the post-Goth set. Colored by the mournful violin of the Dirty Three's Warren Ellis and Cave's own prominent piano and organ, most of the tracks perambulate quietly along, delivering subtly disquieting but masterfully crafted observations on the world.
