Nick Cave - From Her to Eternity

While there is a twisted thread of continuity between Cave's work with the Birthday Party and his first solo affair, FROM HER TO ETERNITY's murky, labyrinthine depths seem to be the polar opposite of the Birthday Party's raging discord. As evidenced by the opening track, a compelling deconstruction of Leonard Cohen's "Avalanche," Cave is mining a far more introspective lode here. Despite the manic energy of the album's title track (the album's only real "rock" song), ETERNITY is the most artistically unfettered (and, admittedly, unstructured) recording of Cave's career. Listening to these artfully misshapen tunes, one has the feeling of peering into the journal of a madman with an unrelenting creative streak. Poetic, unsettling, rambling, moving, ETERNITY makes a case for Cave as the James Joyce of Goth-rock.