Album · Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Tender Prey by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Tender Prey is an album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 1988. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 9 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “The Mercy Seat”, on 4 lists with a best position of #10.
Tender Prey, the fifth album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, came out on Mute on 19 September 1988, pieced together over four months of sessions in London and West Berlin, where the band had set up camp. Flood produced, and the lineup is a proper gang of outsiders: Mick Harvey and Blixa Bargeld, drummer Thomas Wydler, Kid Congo Powers on guitar and Roland Wolf on keys and guitar. The music is the band's '80s brew of post-punk, blues and gothic menace at a full boil.
"The Mercy Seat" is the monster here, relentless and ever-tightening, while "Deanna" is a rowdy, rollicking romp. The album is dedicated to the Brazilian actor Fernando Ramos da Silva. The Good Son would soften the sound two years later; here it's still all sharp edges.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Tender Prey on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Mercy Seat | 4 | #10 | – | 1988–2019 | |
| 2 | Deanna | 5 | #60 | – | 1989–2023 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.