1996年，nick cave出版了经典的《谋杀歌谣》专辑。这张传统的谋杀歌谣实在魅力无穷，深深浸淫于传统的蓝草音乐、乡村乐、民谣和旧日歌谣的氛围中。整张专辑充满了各式各样的罪恶和叛逆。如果这些歌谣在尼克．凯夫之前并不存在，我敢打赌，他会以他特有的叙事方式将它们创造出来。在他与“生日派对” (Birthday Party，凯夫的第一个乐队，其专辑被《滚石》杂志评价为“后朋克时代最无序和野蛮的音乐”)和“坏种”乐队合作的十几张专辑中，凯夫已经创立了他自己的模式-他黑暗的故事有一种让时光停滞的感觉，仿佛这些故事是从被长久遗忘的废墟里发掘出来的。他的歌可能不会让人感到愉悦，他的音乐也似乎与时代不合拍，但这正是他的魅力所在。该专辑的名称很简单：《谋杀歌谣》，被认为是“10首歌以同样的方式结尾”，体现了一种对死亡的奇妙感觉，同时也不乏幽默感。无论是传统歌谣还是原创歌谣，都充分表现了凯夫风格，他创作了其音乐生涯中最黑暗、最令人困扰和最佳的作品。该专辑是当年的最佳专辑之一。中的的每首歌都有其特殊含义，这是一张由绝对出色的艺术家创作的伟大的专辑。96年，他因该专辑被MTV音乐奖评为最佳男艺术家，但他婉拒了该荣誉，解释是：他不想与别人竞争，因为艺术是很主观的。In some ways, Murder Ballads is the record Nick Cave was waiting to make for his entire career. Death and violence have always haunted his music, even when he wasn't explicitly singing about the subject. On Murder Ballads, he sings about nothing but death in the most gruesome, shocking fashion. Divided between originals and covers, the record is awash in both morbid humor and sobering horror, as the Bad Seeds provide an appropriate backdrop for the carnage, alternating between blues, country, and lounge-jazz. Opening the affair is Song for Joy, a tale from a father who has witnessed his family's death at the hands of serial killer. It is the most disturbing number on the record, lacking any of the gallows humor that balances out the other songs. Cave's duets with Kylie Minogue (Where the Wild Roses Grow) and PJ Harvey (Henry Lee) are intriguing, but the true tours de force of the album are Stagger Lee and O'Malley's Bar. Working from an obscure, vulgar variation on Stagger Lee, Cave increases the sordidness of the song, making Stagger an utterly irredeemable character. The original O'Malley's Bar is even stronger, as he spins a bizarrely funny epic of one man's slaughter of an entire bar. During O'Malley's Bar, Cave and the Bad Seeds are at the height of their powers and the performances rank among the best they have ever recorded.专辑曲目：01. Song Of Joy02. Stagger Lee03. Henry Lee04. Lovely Creature05. Where The Wild Roses Grow06. The Curse Of Millhaven07. The Kindness Of Strangers08. Crow Jane09. O'Malley's Bar10. Death Is Not The End