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In a sense, what Cave attempted with Kicking Against the Pricks (1986) was not all that different than what any one of us do when we hit a karaoke bar: Push ourselves out of our comfort zones and have a bit of a laugh while doing so-- certainly, the Bad Seeds have never sounded more cheerful than in the sloshed group sing-along of the Velvets' "All Tomorrow's Parties" and the cheeky, cowpoke reading of country ballad "Long Black Veil". But while stacked with murder ballads that fit right into Cave's wheelhouse -- "Hey Joe", Hooker's "I'm Gonna Kill That Woman"— what's most remarkable about the album is the amount of conviction Cave invests in his more schmaltzy selections. Rather than subject AM radio golden-oldies like Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix", Tom Jones' "Weeping Annaleah", and Gene Pitney's "Something's Gotten a Hold of My Heart" to contemptuous desecration, Cave sounds determined to use them as vehicles to make him a better singer, and the Bad Seeds a more sophisticated, stylistically diverse band.