I must have been anticipating this album keenly after the wonderful Boatman's Call, because I remember making my regular Saturday visit to Polar Bear on Ecclesall Road and asking the guy there about its release date. He told me it was the following Monday, but then reached behind the counter to show that he already had some in stock. I promised not to tell anyone that he'd broken the embargo on selling copies, and I've kept that promise, until now.
Truth is, Boatman's Call was a hard act to follow, and after maybe six or seven listens, I decided it wasn't up to the standard of its predecessor, and put it to one side. This being 2001, the era of my CD-buying binge, anything put to one side was very unlikely to make it back into the player.
Now I see the error of my ways. I still don't think No More Shall We Part is in the same league as Boatman's Call, but that doesn't stop it being pretty damn good. It sags about two thirds of the way through, but then most albums over an hour long do that: I think that's the place they dump the songs that they had trouble finishing, so they dump them around the 45 minute mark, knowing that we'll have turned off, physically or mentally, by then.
Of course, I got the 'limited' edition with the second CD, containing two extra songs (pretty good actually, especially, Grief Came Riding — they're both on B-Sides & Rarities) and a perfunctory and pointless nine-minute Quicktime video.
I've said it before (1, 2) — I won't say it again as I don't have any more Nick Cave albums (Lucy has the more recent ones) — but his back catalogue is pretty impressive now. I can't think of any other artist or band whose career started in the eighties and who's produced so many good albums. Go on, there's a challenge for you: name one!
MusicBrainz entry for this album