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Rating:
Even a dark messiah of the apocalypse like Cave wanted to make money at a certain point in his legendary career, but unlike today's half-hearted attempts, he wanted to make money without sacrificing the quality and immense art inherent in his works on the altar of business until that moment (it was 1994).
He succeeded to perfection with "Let Love In", the album that practically reconciles him with the jet set, there he is on the cover, after 14 years of a borderline career with the mask of Muerte from the Bergmanian Seventh Seal now ready to feature in tabloids, a little drug he still takes, but true heroin addiction is only a memory (according to his interviews, he might still be taking it, eh,) and he has much to say, having exceeded the art itself at the risk of life, such a man has much to ask, much to ponder: first question of the supreme post clamor: Do you love me? Heroin has not erased the noble desire of humanity: love.
The atmosphere is saturated with seaweed and Rio de Janeiro's mucilages, malodorous reminiscences of that "Good Son" that was, a swamp of sounds without resonance, rhythms without dance, Nicky Cave is addicted to love trinkets, "Nobody's Baby Now": Nick the Stripper can finally cradle a 17-year-old girl in his arms without stretching his hands too far, it's the birthday party of the girl and the whole family is gathered, only innocent caresses and no more Sigfriedian ecstasies that annul the antithesis life/art, Cave brandishes his tongue like an elastic dagger, imbued with unsettling joy, the fruit of his vibrant, razor-sharp blade, which only wants to hiss. No longer the shady figure from Tupelo, but an old gringo aroused just before slipping into the senility of the boatman's call.
The album is all a fiery red suspended between love-eros-o-scene (as indeed was his entire career), like the splashes of red on the cover, but someone like Cave doesn't fall in love, he exceeds in love, lets love in ("Let Love In") only to kill it and deliver it to the obscene (o-scené. Out of the scene, beyond the eros), the love Cave talks about is not ultra-bourgeois, that is the breath of the species, it's about starting a family, Cave is something else, his Let Love In is an arch of eyebrows under which the entire sky passes, a real sky of violence, of lava, of hurricane and rage, a deeply theological sky, like the trumpet of the abyss, like hemlock drunk in a dream, a sky collected in all the vials of death, a sky of suicidal lovers.
Don't be deceived by the nowadays Christian converted Cave, Christianity gave Eros the poison to drink, though it did not die, it corrupted into vice. The sonic tricks of Blixa and Harvey in "Red Right Hand" should make one reflect on the music of this album which for me is among the best ever written by the Bad Seeds, "Loverman" is perhaps the last apocalypse written by Cave along with the final murder ballads two years later: the word apocalyptic has interesting origins, coming from the Greek "apokalupsis", which means revelation, revelation in turn derives from the Greek "apokaluptein" which means to unveil, "apo" is a prefix that in Greek means "from", "kaluptein" on the other hand means "woman's veil", so apocalyptic is a term that describes what is revealed when the veil of a woman is lifted, or when a random Cave album is inserted from 1980 to 1996.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
03 Loverman (06:21)
There's a devil waiting outside your door
(How much longer?)
There's a devil waiting outside your door
It is bucking and braying and pawing at the floor
And he's howling with pain and crawling up the walls
There's a devil waiting outside your door
He's weak with evil and broken by the world
He's shouting your name and he's asking for more
There's a devil waiting outside your door
Loverman! Since the world began
Forever, Amen Till end of time Take off that
dress I'm coming down I'm your loverman
Cause I am what I am what I am what I am
L is for LOVE, baby
O is for ONLY you that I do
V is for loving VIRTUALLY all that you are
E is for loving almost EVERYTHING that you do
R is for RAPE me
M is for MURDER me
A is for ANSWERING all of my prayers
N is for KNOWING your loverman's going to
be the answer to all of yours
Loverman! Till the bitter end
While empires burn down Forever and ever
and ever and ever Amen I'm your loverman
So help me, baby So help me
Cause I am what I am what I am what I am
I'll be your loverman!
There's a devil crawling along your floor
There's a devil crawling along your floor
With a trembling heart, he's coming through your door
With his straining sex in his jumping paw
There's a devil crawling along your floor
And he's old and he's stupid and
he's hungry and he's sore
And he's lame and he's blind
and he's dirty and he's poor
Give him more
There's a devil crawling along your floor
Loverman! Here I stand Forever, Amen
Cause I am what I am what I am what I am
Forgive me, baby My hands are tied
And I got no choice No, I got no choice at all
I'll say it again
L is for LOVE, baby
O is for O yes I do
V is for VIRTUE, so I ain't gonna hurt you
E is for EVEN if you want me to
R is for RENDER unto me, baby
M is for that which is MINE
A is for ANY old how, darling
N is for ANY old time
I'll be your loverman! I got a masterplan
To take off your dress And be your man
Seize the throne Seize the mantle
Seize the crown Cause I am what I am
What I am what I am I'm your loverman!
There's a devil lying by your side
You might think he's asleep
but look at his eyes
He wants you, baby, to be his bride
There's a devil lying by your side
Loverman! Loverman!
05 Red Right Hand (06:10)
Take a litle walk to the edge of town
Go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms,
like a bird of doom
As it shifts and cracks
Where secrets lie in the border fires,
in the humming wires
Hey man, you know
you're never coming back
Past the square, past the bridge,
past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes
a tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with
a red right hand
He'll wrap you in his arms,
tell you that you've been a good boy
He'll rekindle all the dreams
it took you a lifetime to destroy
He'll reach deep into the hole,
heal your shrinking soul
Hey buddy, you know you're
never ever coming back
He's a god, he's a man,
he's a ghost, he's a guru
They're whispering his name
through this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat
is a red right hand
You ain't got no money?
He'll get you some
You ain't got no car? He'll get you one
You ain't got no self-respect,
you feel like an insect
Well don't you worry buddy,
cause here he comes
Through the ghettos and the barrio
and the bowery and the slum
A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of green paper in his
red right hand
(Organ solo)
You'll see him in your nightmares,
you'll see him in your dreams
He'll appear out of nowhere but
he ain't what he seems
You'll see him in your head,
on the TV screen
And hey buddy, I'm warning
you to turn it off
He's a ghost, he's a god,
he's a man, he's a guru
You're one microscopic cog
in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by
his red right hand
(Organ solo)
Extra verse from DJ Spooky Remix (From Scream 2 Soundtrack):
He'll extend his hand, real slowly for a shake
You'll see it coming toward you, real slowly for a shake
(Grabbing at your peril buddy?) cause you know you ain't
getting near much as he will take.
He's a...
He's mumbling words you can't understand
He's mumbling word behind his red right hand.
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Other reviews
By 47
"‘Let Love In’ is the album of this inner conflict, of wanting to stay at the helm at all costs when the ship is sinking and the icy wind allows no breath."
"The album... is nothing but the exorcism... of the shadows of its author, which purify through writing like a liver."
