The Bad Seeds’ 12th studio album—and final one with co-founding guitarist Blixa Bargeld—at times has an optimism that does not reflect the after-hours portent of its title. Observe the light, jazzy backing behind the simmering opener “Wonderful Life” and the burnished orchestral dressing on “There Is a Town” and “He Wants You”. Most accessible among the wealth of piano ballads is the devotional love song “Rock of Gibraltar”, hinting at new-found levels of mellowness from Cave and crew. “Right Out of Your Hand” (as in “You’ve got me eating…”) is equally soft and romantic, shaded with delicate backing vocals from longtime Bad Seed Conway Savage. Also bolstered by added vocals is “Bring It On”, a brisker number featuring the group efforts of The Saints’ Chris Bailey and several members of Ian Dury’s band The Blockheads. But the famously fluid Australian songwriter furnishes the otherwise peaceable Nocturama with two notable trap doors. First comes the full-bodied and bluesy “Dead Man in My Bed”, complete with scalding Hammond organ. Topped with Cave’s sweary delivery, it feels all the more volatile for being preceded by such gentleness. The record finishes with “Babe, I’m on Fire”, a lyric-stuffed rave-up that sees Cave almost struggling to spit out his avalanche of images and ideas. Almost 15 minutes long, the song plays like a true epic—which is even more impressive given that this album was recorded quickly, captured by former Birthday Party producer Nick Launay over a single week during a 2002 Australian tour and released the following year. While still ripe with the unabashed romance that pervades the record, the song is a mischievous way to close out this affair, reminding listeners that The Bad Seeds never stay in one mode for long. Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis features prominently on violin, indicating his growing importance to the ensemble; multi-instrumentalist Mick Harvey would exit the lineup six years later. Every Bad Seeds record can be viewed as a vivid portrait of creative flux, but few quite as nakedly as this one, which dramatically spans some of Cave’s most divergent approaches in a single sitting. Nocturama is a compact version of the stormy scope defining his overall songbook.