The best way to describe this album is that it's musical poetry. The essence of the songs is that they are long, flowing poems, telling a story to musical accompaniment. 'Song of Joy' (don't be fooled, Joy is a name not an expression of happiness) even borrows some lines from John Milton as well as referring to his classic work Paradise Lost, while other tracks are based on traditional arrangements. Throughout the course of the album Cave alternates between singing and speaking the words.
Abandoning the idea of conventional singing as he thus does is a risky proposition. You can either look incredibly inspired and intelligent, or incredibly uninspired and unintelligent. The credibility of Murder Ballads rests on whether the listener accepts this style as a good thing or a bad thing. Thankfully, on this particular record at least, it is a good thing. It is a credit to Cave and the band that they can manage to be so innovative and successful at the same time.
Another point to consider is whether the music accompanying the lyrics is good. Due to the unique nature of the songs the music itself has to take a unique form. Rather than being the main element of the song, the music is actually secondary to the words. It is there to add meaning and interest. In 'Stagger Lee', for example, as the action builds up so does the sound, finally climaxing when the story itself does. This is something that the band does well throughout Murder Ballads. In fact it is done so well that it often appears that the music and words are one seamless whole rather than two distinct elements.
For all this talk of musical poetry it should be pointed out that there are a couple of more typical songs on Murder Ballads. While still retaining their poetic heart 'Where the Wild Roses Grow' and 'Death is Not the End' (a Bob Dylan song) have the common verse/chorus structure and are sung. Still they are gloomy as all the other tracks. Nevertheless this variety is a positive thing for the makeup of the album as it
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