

Then "Loverman" roars onto the scene, alternating between the creeping, bell-accentuated verse, there's a devil waiting outside your door ( How much longer?, guitarist Blixa Bargeld deeply intones), before all hell breaks loose in the chorus, the Bad Seeds banging away like a band possessed. "Nobody's Baby Now" fakes the listener out that it might be safe to come out now, the arrangement comparatively gentle, though the lyrics dreary. "Do You Love Me?" is fun and scary and intense and sets the mood immediately. Gone are the minimalistic trappings that sometimes hampered previous outings. "Do You Love Me?" kicks the album off with the Bad Seeds sounding tighter and fuller than ever. Let Love In takes the dark, Gothic leanings that have cropped up in previous Cave albums and makes them explicit. I guess this is the point in the review where I should finally start talking about it. It is the archetype of what I (most likely unfairly) want every Nick Cave album to sound like. "Red Right Hand" might be the song of Nick Cave's career, and in my opinion, Let Love In* is (perhaps among a few, but we'll get to that) his landmark album. At first I thought I was hearing an old song by the Doors, but when the song popped up on The X-Files VHS set I received for Christmas (from the episode "Ascension"), I finally decided to do some research. The atmosphere created by the music is brilliant, creating the tension of oncoming darkness, but cool as.well by definition, hell is not cool, but you get my drift. That one little foreboding scene is my favorite of the entire film. More specifically, a late night, summer of '97 viewing of the film Scream, featuring Let Love In's "Red Right Hand," introduced me to Nick Cave. None of Cave's album covers to this point have been nearly as impressionistic.įull disclosure: Let Love In introduced me to Nick Cave.

One look at the album cover for Let Love In clues the listener that they are in for something different: an unsettling photo of a naked Nick Cave, the album title written in red on his chest, his face turned skyward toward the band name, against a striking red background.
