Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Nick Cave is a musician of excess. His soundscapes make Phil Spector’s wall of sound seem like particle board. Through production, his compositions are rendered note perfect and near masterpieces. His songs are bigger than your stereo musically and lyrically. His lyrics tackle all of the heavy topics, life, love, death and of course life after death. It’s a shame he doesn’t have a larger following here in the states. He is truly one of the most original musicians of our time.

That said, The Abbatoir Blues Tour double cd double dvd package embodies the very definition of excess. Not that it’s a bad thing. The first half of the first cd features songs off of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds incendiary 2004 double album Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus.

The production on the cds is not as good as it should be. Many times throughout the songs it feels almost as if you’re listening to a bootleg from a fan in the audience instead of a professionally produced live document. The first half of the first cd features songs off of Abbatoir Blues such as the opener “O Children” and a musically crowded “Get Ready For Love.” The cd also includes some choice cuts from Cave’s back catalogue including “Red Right Hand,” and “Stagger Lee.”

The second cd features more from Abbatoir Blues and a wholly unnecessary “God Is In the House,” which drags on for so long it’s like God is that one party guest you can’t get rid of. The centerpiece of this disc is a thundering take of “There She Goes, My Beautiful World.” Even though the music on the cds is first rate the audio is still tough to listen to.

Fortunately the audio problem did not show up on the dvds. The first disc contains a complete show from the Brixton Academy in London on November 11, 2004. This show contains material from Abbatoir Blues and shows you what you are missing if you have never attended a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds show. Mr. Cave and his group are the ultimate showmen. On stage he adds a backing vocal choir and string section to help the Bad Seeds tear through energetic live renditions of their best songs. All the while Nick Cave is on stage either strutting around like a madman, pounding the keys or interacting with the audience more than I ever knew he could. The highlight, in my opinion, is a manic performance of “Nature Boy,” my favorite track off of Abbatoir Blues.

The second dvd contains footage from a 2003 concert at the Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London. This show was pre-Abbatoir so the live selections here are pulled from their back catalogue. Starting off with “Wonderful Life,” and ending with “Wild World,” the live footage provides only a brief introduction to Nick Cave’s past. This disc also includes a few interesting extras such as videos for some of the songs off Abbatoir Blues. All in all this is a very solid offering from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It could have been great, only if the audio was clearer on the cds.