Henrys Dream (Rm) (Enhanced) [Original recording remastered]

First of all let me tell the prospective buyer that there are two discs in this package, not three. I have no idea who posts some of the erroneous product information on amazon, but it seems to be getting more common and nothing at all is done about it.
What you really get with the remastered Henry's Dream is a delightful package containing an audio disc and sort of a CD/DVD hybrid, some of which features actual video footage. The first disc contains the nine songs that were on the original album. The second contains the same songs but you can listen to them in three different formats. It also contains live bonus tracks, a couple videos, some fairly uninteresting band and fan chatter, and some downloads. So now if you already own this in its original form, you might be considering whether it is worth springing for this package. My advice is to do it! The sound is so much richer on this recording than on the original that you may be left wondering how the record company managed to leave out so much of the sound the first time around.
Henry's Dream, one of Nick Cave's darkest records, is also one of my favorites. The booklet that accompanies this set contains the lyrics, so you can read along while listening and fully enjoy just how dark it is! The cuts that most animate me are the maniacal I Had A Dream, Joe; the raspy, evil-sounding Brother, My Cup Is Empty; the vicious John Finn's Wife; a hard-bitten romantic The Loom of the Land; and the savage Jack the Ripper. Listen to this set in all formats and enjoy the aural superiority of the remaster.
The three videos provided are all good, especially the acoustic Jack the Ripper but the real treat lies in listening to the seven bonus tracks. I like them all, but The Good Son, The Mercy Seat and especially a standout rendition of The Carny are the best. I haven't yet checked out the downloads, but at the very low price for which this package is presently on offer you would be getting more than your money's worth without them.
Nick Cave has embarked on an ambitious remastering project of his back catalogue which he seems to be about half-way through. I have two of the other remasters, so far Henry's Dream is my favorite. If Cave's musical vision moves you like it does me, you are going to enjoy this. Get it while it is still obscenely cheap.

HENRY'S DREAM

Out of all the Bad Seeds albums, Henry's Dream seems to be a bit underrated by fans & critics. Yet among a catalogue as diverse as theirs, Dream has a sound all its own.

While the preceding Good Son was more laid back & somber, Henry kicks off with the furious tumult of Papa Won't Leave You Henry. Delivered with snarling abandon, what ensues is a demented travelogue of mad heat, relentless rain & walls running red with "warm, arterial spray". And yet, it's all strangely off set by a chorus more fitting for a lullaby.

Between the driving likes of I Had a Dream Joe and Brother and My Cup Is Empty is the strikingly commercial sounding Straight to You. But lyrically speaking, this is anything but a typical love ballad. "Gone are the days of rainbows" for "the sparrows have sharpened their beaks"...The way Cave wields the chorus sometimes could be taken as a threat.

That's not to say Henry doesn't have its share of brooding moments. The haunting Loom of the Land is without question an album standout. As for the sparse, atmospheric Christina the Astonishing, the Bad Seeds have never recorded anything like it.

Perhaps most uncharacteristic is When I First Came to Town, featuring some truly world weary backing vocals from piano man Conway Savage. The liner notes state the song is based off of Karen Dalton's "Katie Cruel" but musically there's little resemblance. Starting with melodic acoustic guitar and ending in a yearning sweep of strings, the song's more fitting for the closing credits of some elegiac Western.

Speaking of Westerns, if Sam Peckinpah made one set in South America, John Finn's Wife would fit the bill. By far the album's most epic track, The Bad Seeds set the scene with mounting tension before Cave's narrative explodes, ending with a slow motion montage of the flies buzzing round "poor John Finn". Tongue in cheek and suitably perverse, it's a striking climax to the albums' most cinematic song.

Another thing that sets Henry apart is the fact it's the only Bad Seeds record to have an outside "producer". Under label pressure, they reluctantly went through the motions of a search; eventually alighting on whom they thought was the most "un-producer like": David Briggs. No doubt the man who helmed the control room for many a Neil Young classic seemed like a great idea at the time. Alas, it was not a match made in heaven. In the end, the masters were "borrowed" by Cave & then slipped to longtime Bad Seeds engineer, Tony Cohen to "salvage".

To hear it from the Bad Seeds themselves, Henry's Dream is an exercise in thwarted ambition. According to the liner notes, Cave was going for a "brutal, atonal" sound "bashed out on broken acoustic guitars". The kind of sound he heard from the street singers in his then adopted home in Brazil. If they failed at that, they stumbled on to something else instead: Something dark, furious and cinematic.

Lastly, there's some misrepresentation on Amazon's part in terms of the package. It's only 2 discs, not 3. As with all the previous in this collector's re-master series, Disc I is the re-mastered album & Disc II is an interview documentary w/ bonus tracks (Bluebird being a gem) & videos.

As the liner notes themselves suggest, it's ironic that "Straight to You" became the defining/ breakout single from the album, because that lushly arranged, unironic love song (as gorgeous as it may be) totally contradicts the thrust of the rest of _Henry's Dream_. What you get here is primarily aggressive, nitro-charged rock, with a real focus and intensity that Nick and the Boys sometimes lack within the diverse stylings of other albums. The standouts include "I Had a Dream, Joe", and "Jack the Ripper"-- both emblematic of the Bad Seeds' best use of bluesy, charging guitar chords, and nice backup-chorus vocals to compliment Cave's full-throttle, apocalyptic poet-preacher storytelling (Dylan gone Goth(er), as I always saw it).

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 6 reviews  4.7 out of 5 stars