If there's one thing you can count on from Nick Cave it's an uncompromising stance. As such, this new Best Of comes in a variety of configurations. No matter where you fit on the spectrum of Cave fandom - casual, curious or converted - there's a version that caters specifically to your needs.
Only the faithful should consider the deluxe edition. This does not muck about or cut any corners. Spread across three CDs it's a comprehensive, exhaustive summary of an astonishingly resolute, idiosyncratic and principled 30 years of music.
At 45 songs its running time is around four hours, and if that's not enough there's also a two-hour DVD filled with rare footage to get through and a book to pore over.
If there's one thing the deluxe edition hammers home it's how singular of a vision Cave's had across the three decades he's been fronting the Bad Seeds. It is a stunningly cohesive collection that sees him attacking the same obsessions in constantly fluctuating ways and genres, without ever making any concessions along the way.
As a listening experience it's a heavy trip. It's a helluva long time to immerse yourself in Cave's black world of religion and violence, life and death, and love and sex. At times it's harrowing, at others it's simply beautiful.
