Nick Cave and Warren Ellis

While Nick Cave scoring a movie would be interesting enough, the other part of the deal is that he also wrote the screenplay. To be trite, The Proposition is an Australian western and, from the back cover photo of Guy Pearce’s whipped and bloody back, it seems a grisly one. However, coming from Mr. Cave, that’s hardly a surprise. Indeed, most of the songs here ooze atmosphere, but that can actually be pinpointed down to the elegiac violin of the Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis. Cave adds his vocal gravitas to some tracks, but even then there’s actually nary a fully formed song on here. This music easily and ably gives proper context to the visuals, but as a stand alone album there are some drawbacks. Songs like "Down to the Valley” and "Gun Thing” are more fully formed, but it is really only "The Rider Song” that could stand with other Nick Cave material. The instrumentals from Ellis are great and moody, but they don’t stick around long enough to warrant much attention. Essentially slave to the dusty visuals, the music here is evocative and notable, but, really, for fans only.