Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus, the 13th studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, arrived on Mute on 20 September 2004 as a double album of 17 songs, two records that roar and sigh in turn. Nick Launay produced, and the Bad Seeds are out in force: multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey, Warren Ellis sawing at his violin, Martyn P. Casey on bass, Conway Savage on organ and piano, James Johnston on guitar, and both Thomas Wydler and Jim Sclavunos behind the drums.

"There She Goes My Beautiful World" is the one rock radio latched onto, a rollicking, gospel-lit stomp with Cave preaching at full tilt. Critics fell in behind the whole sprawling thing, it went top 10 in 13 countries, mostly in Europe, Pitchfork later slotted it in at 180th on its roundup of the 2000s, and it made it into the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.