2010 Remastered Edition

1992's Henry's Dream, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' seventh studio album, contains songs critics and fans alike have come to regard as indisputable classics from the band's oeuvre: "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry," "Christina the Astonishing" and "Jack the Ripper," to name just a few. Yet, for the band, Henry's Dream undeniably epitomizes – much more so than any of their other albums – the loss of control that ensues when one has exerted but a slippery grip on some very vertiginous circumstances.

"Henry's Dream," explains Cave, "was one of the first records that I came to with an absolute sound in my head as to how this record should be. What I wanted to make with Henry's Dream was a very violent acoustic record, basically using storytelling and acoustic instruments to create a really fucked up and violent sound, but which was in no way heavy. This, sadly, didn't happen." The Good Son had evidenced a decided shift to a more "classic" form of songwriting; combined with less jarring arrangements and overall smoother production than earlier albums, it seemed to betoken a broader potential appeal. In Mick's evaluation, Nick's songwriting had become "a lot more coherent and focused." Compared to his earlier work, a tune like "The Ship Song" could "maybe seem a bit like a straight pop-rock song, if you want to look at it that way."

Apparently their record label did look it at that way: "Mute suggested that we get a ‘real' producer to produce our next record. I think they heard The Good Son, heard a whole lot of ballads there, and possibly thought that they weren't exploited or recorded in the right way," conjectures Cave. Mick confirms, "Daniel [Miller, head of Mute] just suggested, ‘Maybe it'd be good to actually get a producer this time and see what happens.' So we did." Nick knew exactly what he was looking for in a producer: "I remember sitting and going through records and I was actively trying to find a record that sounded the least produced. That's why we came up with David Briggs; it felt like he just let those Neil Young records just happen organically and had little involvement in them. It felt like he recorded Neil Young and his band as he found them."

Band personnel had changed substantially since recording The Good Son. The core of Nick, Blixa, Thomas and Mick remained unchanged. Kid Congo Powers had returned to The Gun Club (leaving Mick to handle rhythm guitar duties) and two new members were welcomed into the fold, both of them Australians: Conway Savage on piano and ex-Triffid Martyn Casey on bass. This unit proved to be rough and ready and fully capable of tackling Cave's material head on, especially when it came to throwing down live studio performances. Blixa Bargeld enthuses, "What was really great about this record is the majority of that material was recorded together as a band - one take, classical way, all of them playing together - which is something that I cherish a lot."

Despite the constant push and pull with Briggs, Henry's Dream became one of the Bad Seeds most loved records.