Mick Harvey Albums (6)
What The Critics Say
Two of Diamonds is Bad Seed Mick Harvey's fourth proper solo album -- there are a number of soundtracks out there that also bear his name -- and his third recording overall in two years. Other artists' songs principally make up the set -- particularly Australians who've moved and influenced him -- with a few tunes of his own placed strategically. The album opens with a killer reading of the Saints' "Photograph" that bring out all the pathos and grief in the original, but is added to by Harvey's use of Rosie Westbrook's double bass and Thomas Wylder's drumming. The bookend track is a nod to his ex-bandmate Simon Bonney, frontman of Crime & the City Solution; Harvey was their musical director after the Birthday Party split. There are also tunes here by the Triffids and the Loved Ones. What sets this recording apart from its predecessors is that Harvey is using what feels like a real band instead of either doing things himself, as he did on One Man's Treasure, or groups of studio pals. Along with Wylder and Westbook are James Johnston on guitar and organ and Julitha Ryan on piano and backing vocals. PJ Harvey's drummer/keyboardist Rob Ellis also appears on a cut. The originals here are gorgeous, among the finest songs Harvey's ever written. "Blue Arrows" is a skeletal song with Harvey playing guitars and piano and Westbook's bass filled with spirit. Two and a half minutes in length, it hovers, shimmers, and floats while leaving its bittersweet melody embedded in the heart of the listener. Then there's "Little Star," again under three minutes long, that emerges via a fade-in of piano and guitars playing a repetitive, nearly droning theme. Harvey's vocal comes from the last couple of centuries somewhere, out of time and space, and glides through the lyric, another love song to the listener on the wind until the refrain, when the portrait of love's past is considered over distance and time itself like an open palm that contains blackened rose petals -- dead, gone, treasured. Two of Diamonds' moody, brooding sweetness is the next step Harvey takes out from under Nick Cave's long shadow and into his own musical identity, keeping the listener in reverie for the album's entire run. Sadly beautiful, it's one of those sleepers that deserves to be heard, whispered about, and imprinted in the heart. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
While it's true that Bad Seeds musical director Mick Harvey has made solo records in the past, he's never made one quite like this. With the exception of a string trio, Harvey played everything himself on One Man's Treasure. But this is also something more than a one-man-band recording; with this outing, Harvey establishes himself not only as a fine composer, but as a songwriter. The album opens with "First St. Blues," in which the protagonist is a beggar seeking a dime toward a glass of wine and demands not to be pitied. Piano and electric guitar languidly introduce the changes and Harvey's baritone -- full of emotion, empathy and a documentarian's sense of truth -- begins his tale. It's haunting, but not sophomoric. The strings, keyboards and an acoustic guitar carry Harvey's voice in the moving love song "Come into My Sleep." But there is plenty of drama in his music as well. The tension that mounts in the swirling "Demon Alcohol" is almost unbearable. Country music, folk and subtle rock & roll color all of these songs. Country music has a rich history in Harvey's native Australia, and he uses it though it's portrayed through the prism of the cinematic -- check "The River," with its dark Telecasters twanging to accentuate the verses, or "Hank Williams Said It Best," which is kissed by Ennio Morricone's sense of atmosphere. Ultimately, One Man's Treasure is a collection of redemption songs, whether that redemption is wrought through love (found or lost), grief, disaster, or personal discovery. All of it is brought to bear by a completely unsentimental vision articulated by a songwriter who understands how a story is to be told. There is just enough air in this mix for the listener to breathe; it offsets the tight, precise, and wondrously limitless creativity Harvey exhibits here. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Australian Rules is a 2002 film by director Paul Goldman, and this is an original score. Bad Seeds musical director Mick Harvey has done some interesting soundtracks over the years, but none as compelling or musically sophisticated as this. The film has a narrative of sorts, but its true concern is about the racial and cultural relationships and tensions between Australians and the Aboriginals. Harvey's score, fraught with pastoral, sonic vistas reflecting the land and considerable tensions for reflecting plot and character developments, is a sophisticated and moving piece of music in its own right. Harvey has considerable abilities when it comes to writing for strings and orchestra, yet his rock and country leanings are also present here, creating a deeply atmospheric series of short audio vignettes that are fraught with brooding darkness and shimmering light. He plays everything here, with the exception of the string sequences (for which he has enlisted the aid of a string quartet) and lap-steel genius Matt Walker. Tex Perkins contributes one track, "What I Done to Her," from Tex, Don & Charlie's Monday Morning Coming Down... album, which is Aussie country music at its best. This is a solid album and should give Bad Seeds fans something to hold onto until the next Nick Cave outing; for Harvey aficionados, this is one of the most welcome and satisfying recordings he's ever done. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Pink Elephants continues what Mick Harvey began with Intoxicated Man -- it's the second collection of Serge Gainsbourg covers that the Bad Seeds guitarist has recorded. This time around, he concentrates on lesser-known songs like "Manon," "Comic Strip," "The Ballad of Melody Nelson," and "Hotel Specific," and while the results aren't as immediately beguiling as those on Intoxicated Man, it's still rich, evocative, seedy, and alluring. Harvey sings most of the material, but one of the highlights is the Anita Lane and Nick Cave duet "I Love You...Nor Do I." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Intoxicated Man is the first of Mick Harvey's tributes to French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Released at a time when the icon was largely unknown outside his home country, the album offers 16 English translations. Years spent in a supporting role with Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds taught Harvey the importance of yielding to the song. Whether preserving the original material or crafting intricate new settings of his own, the focus always remains on Gainsbourg, a man alternately lovelorn, satirical, and erotic. Rollicking guitars and a rolling rhythm kick up dust on "Harley Davidson"; "I think less well of life than of my motor bike," snarls guest vocalist Anita Lane. Mock lounge jazz suits the title track's story of descent into drink. Persistent organs give much of the material a similar feel. Elsewhere, elegant string arrangements (courtesy of Bertrand Burgalat) sweep through the songs, vaguely dating them in a past era. Like Gainsbourg's originals, however, Harvey's versions have substance beyond mere kitsch value. Gainsbourg seems to have had an obsession with American popular culture ("New York U.S.A.," "Harley Davidson," "Ford Mustang," "Bonnie and Clyde") and on Intoxicated Man, it's the fast living of guns, cars, and alcohol that lure him. His direct, dry humor and taste for satire are also evident throughout. "Chatterton" is all punchline, with Harvey reading off a list of suicide casualties -- "How 'bout me?" he asks, "Lately I don't feel good inside." "New York U.S.A." is an ode to the city that gets Gainsbourg "high, oh so high." Harvey tours the Big Apple with his female backup singers in tow, getting his fix from Rockefeller Center and the Pan American Building. Also included are examples of Gainsbourg's dark, erotic leanings on "Sex Shop" and the controversial "Lemon Incest." Intoxicated Man serves both as a point of entry into the music-making of Mick Harvey and an accessible, highly enjoyable introduction to the universe of Serge Gainsbourg. ~ Nathan Bush, All Music Guide
'Alta Marea & Vaterland'
Release Date 12/31/1993
Tracks 24
Label Ionic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Although Mick Harvey is best known as a long-standing and integral part of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds, his solo work shows another, perhaps even more complex side of this master musician. The soundtrack compilation Alta Marea & Vaterland is stellar, gathering the myriad television and soundtrack work the guitarist has undertaken since the mid-'80s. Harvey's moody organ and guitar driven songs for Lucian Segura's 1991 Alta Marea is the perfect foil for the on-screen atmospherics in this brutal set piece. The film details the travails of a group of friends who try to dispose of the body of one of their group after he is killed by a nightclub bouncer. Creepy, heart-stopping and awash in dark adrenaline, who else but Harvey would have been up to the task? Vaterland, meanwhile, with its themes of racism, mental illness and search for home finds Harvey scoring the music in much the same vein, but adding a wash of Middle Eastern ethic to mirror the film's Algerian protagonist. The movie itself, incidentally, was directed by Uli Schuppel, who also filmed Cave's The Road to God Knows Where. The remainder of the album rounds itself out with three smaller projects Harvey undertook in the late '80s. Identity-Kid, a 1987 German documentary by Ed Cantu, featured three tracks -- "Waynesville" and the appropriately named "Guitar Theme" and "Vibes Theme." Harvey's contributions to Gustav Hamos' 1991 The Real Power of Television are driven primarily by simple acoustic guitar, always a pleasure to hear. The collection wraps up with three tracks from Gisa Shleelein's 1987 German short, Totes Geld. Because the music created for film is always geared to the action on the screen, the songs on soundtrack albums often lose their punch, and this one is no exception. There is no doubt that Harvey is a multi-talented musician, that he envisions with perfection what is needed to complement a variety of visuals, but for the layman, this collection probably won't mean much. For the aficionado, however, it's a superb chance to see this performer breaking out of his usual role. ~ Amy Hanson, All Music Guide
