Nocturama
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
Anti-/Epitaph

Nick Cave has undergone quite a transformation over the last couple decades, from snarling frontman for post-punks The Birthday Party to stately British balladeer and poet. Switching to Epitaph's ambitious Anti- imprint — home to the vaunted likes of Tom Waits, Solomon Burke and Merle Haggard — Cave and his six-piece Bad Seeds band have issued the formidable Nocturama, which, save for a few ill-advised forays into cacophonous rock, lives up to its title as a gripping collection of late-hour love songs. Fractured love, obsessive love, rapturous love. And a bit of anger mixed in, which doesn't work nearly as well.

Most of Cave's songs on Nocturama manage to be at once epic and intimate. He sings in a rich, melodramatic baritone that conveys, more than anything else, an exquisite melancholy. Further, his vocals imbue deceptively simple lyrics with deeper meaning. On the stunning opener "Wonderful Life," Cave sings repeatedly over a slow, rolling piano figure, "It's a wonderful life/ If you can find it" — perhaps trite on the printed page, but his reading creates an ambivalent push and pull between hope and despair.

Nocturama seduces the listener with brooding sensitivity until about the midway point. Then comes the band's first foray into rock, "Dead Man in Bed," a bitter wife's screed about her bloated, useless old man, pushed crashingly along by overdriven guitars and organs and Cave's bilious vocals. Instead of becoming more palatable with repeated listens, the song remains a blemish.

The disc returns to form with another four-pack of warm ballads — including the charming Brit-folk waltz "Rock of Gibraltar" and the hymn-like "She Passed By My Window" — then concludes with a song that goes beyond blemish into blight. "Babe, I'm on Fire" cranks up the tempo and distortion again; Cave launches into a vein-popping rant about lust, spitting stanza after stanza of bad Dylan-esque rhymes ("The cop with his breathalyzer/ The paddy with his fertiliser … says/ Babe, I'm on fire"), all wrapped in a clumsy hook. The capper: It lasts nearly 15 minutes. The song is annoying. It's interminable. It's a disastrous way to end what is otherwise a pretty terrific CD. $$$ 1/2—Eric Snider

Never Be Taken AliveCOUNT THE STARSVictory The old one about being able to tell exactly what a band sounds like by looking at their picture has never had a positive connotation. And the photo on the back of Count the Stars' Victory debut does nothing but reinforce the notion that it's funny because it's true. To paraphrase Chandler Bing, could they be any more emo-pop? The music contained herein provides the obvious answer: not really. All the hooks, energy and heartbreak we loved the first six or eight times we heard them are here, finally and utterly sapped of whatever substance they might once have had. Worse, it's all delivered by four guys whose own mothers wouldn't stand a prayer of identifying them in a crowded Hot Topic. It's not bad riffage, and here it's presented with a heavier production and more biting guitar tones. But by now, countless bands have tilled this soil, and plenty have done it with immeasurably more personality (Ultimate Fakebook comes to mind). Count the Stars' failure to bring even a smidgen of originality to the table renders Never Be Taken Alive anonymous and irrelevant by comparison. $—Scott Harrell

Monk's Dream
THELONIOUS MONK
Columbia/Legacy

Monk's first recording for a major label was not a particularly ambitious project. In 1962, after joining the roster of jazz stars at Columbia that included Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck, Monk merely called upon his regular quartet, brushed off a few old originals and a handful of standards, counted off and started playing. The results, though not revelatory, are superb. Monk and his band — tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, bassist John Ore and drummer Frankie Dunlop — launch into songs like "Blues Five Spot," "Blue Bolivar Blues," "Bye-Ya," "Bright Mississippi" (a variation on the chord changes to "Sweet Georgia Brown that was the albums only "new" composition) and the title track with impressive verve. (The disc also contains four welcome alternate takes.) Rouse, who could sound sleepy and disinterested during his long tenure with Monk, is particularly gregarious and robust. Monk's idiosyncratic piano work is in top form. It's never been questioned that the man wrote fabulous songs, but his heavy-handed playing has long flummoxed a lot of listeners with its knotty eccentricities and seeming "wrong" notes. Once you get it, though, you can't get enough. Monk had the uncanny ability to sound both antique and progressive, which could only make his music timeless. $$$$ 1/2—Eric Snider

Meres of Twilight
KIMONE
Silverthree Recordings

Kimone is a quintet from Boston that plays brooding, dynamic tuneage informed by both arty pop and the posthardcore aesthetic. Wait, wait — come back here. Seriously, this one's different. Yes, it was produced by J. Robbins. Yes, they've toured with Karate, Nada Surf and The Album Leaf. But what sets Kimone apart is the unit's ability to deliver the kind of melodic experimentalism that gets them compared to Sigur Ros and Tortoise without the cloying pretense and/or self-indulgence that so often render bands of this stripe unpalatable. Meres of Twilight balances its fragile melancholy with occasional sinewy strength and an easy affability, lightening up on the Precious Factor considerably. Also, the guitar parts are singularly beautiful, insinuating and memorable. If the band has an Achilles' heel, it's the vocals of Tim Den, who too often tries to up the arty ante. But nearly everywhere, and particularly on standouts like "Barrierbarrierbarrier" and "We Will Write," the music's educated-but-approachable vibe wins out. Good stuff. (www.silverthree.com) $$$ 1/2—Scott Harrell

Upcoming Releases
The following CDs will be available in stores Jan. 28.

Bad Company, Shot Down on Safari (System)
Butthole Surfers, Butthole Surfers/PCPPEP (Latino Bugger Veil)
Kasse Mady Cheikh, Mariana (Real World)
George Clinton & The P-Funk All-Stars, Six Degrees of P-Funk: The Best of George Clinton and His Funky Family (Epic/Legacy)
Dogwood, Seismic (Tooth and Nail)
Eastmountainsouth, Eastmountainsouth (DreamWorks)
Stephen Fearing, That's How I Walk (Philo/Rounder)
Furthermore, She & I (Tooth and Nail)
K-Os, Exit (Astralwerks)
Jesse Malin, The Fine Art of Self-Destruction (Artemis)
OST, Biker Boyz (DreamWorks)
OST, Morvern Callar (Warp)
Flora Purim, Speak No Evil (Narada Jazz)
Snowdogs, Deep Cuts, Fast Remedies (Victory)
Somehow Hollow, Busted Wings and Broken Halos (Victory)
V/A, Bare Essentials Vol. 2 (NakedMusic/Astralwerks)
V/A, Best of Sourcelab (Source/Astralwerks)
V/A, New.Old.Rare. (Fueled by Ramen)
V/A, N.V.A.: Straight from the Crates, Vol. 1 (Avatar)
V/A, Watch How The People Dancing: Unity Sounds from the London Dancehall 1986-1989 (Honest Jon's/Astralwerks)
Cheryl Wheeler, Different Stripe (Philo/Rounder)
Bill Withers, Menagerie (Columbia/Legacy)
Bill Withers, Still Bill (Columbia/Legacy)
Young Gods, Second Nature (Ipecac)