AlbumE · 1988
Tender Prey
Tender Prey is a 1988 alternative rock album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. It runs 11 tracks across 54 minutes.
Alternative Rock · Post-Punk · Gothic Rock
Your rating
- 82 /100
- 8 critics
- 11
- Tracks
- 54 min
- Runtime
- 135 bpm
- Tempo
- F minor
- Key
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Critics
8 publications
- Drowned in Sound9/10
- AllMusic4.5/5
- Paste8.2/10
- The Rolling Stone Album Guide4/5
- Uncut4/5
- NME8/10
- Record Mirror4/5
- Spin Alternative Record Guide7/10
Scores collected from the English Wikipedia ratings box (CC BY-SA). Ratings belong to the publications; follow a link to read the review.
Tender Prey album cover

The Tender Prey cover was designed by Slim Smith and photographed by Bleddyn Butcher and Peter Gruchot.
- Design
- Slim Smith
- Photography
- Bleddyn Butcher, Peter Gruchot
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Tracklist
11 tracks · 54 min
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About
Tender Prey is the fifth studio album by Australian post-punk band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released on 19 September 1988 on Mute Records. Produced by Flood, the album was recorded during several sessions over the course four months in West Berlin—where the band were based at the time of its release— and London and dedicated to Fernando Ramos da Silva. The album opens with frontman Nick Cave's signature song, "The Mercy Seat," which has been subsequently played at almost all of the band's live performances since 1988, and was later covered by one of Cave's influences, Johnny Cash, on American III: Solitary Man (2000). "The Mercy Seat" was released as a single in May 1988 prior to the album's release and "Deanna" was released in September. On the CD version, the video mix of "The Mercy Seat" is also included as the last track.
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Upon its release, Tender Prey received positive reviews and charted in the United Kingdom and Greece. However, the album failed to chart in either the band's native Australia or the United States Billboard charts. The album was remastered and reissued on 29 March 2010 as a collector's edition CD/DVD set and in October 2010, was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums, alongside The Boatman's Call (1997), in the Top 30. In 2012 it was added to the Australian National Registry of Recorded Sound.
In brief
- When was Tender Prey released?
- Tender Prey was released in 1988.
- How many tracks are on Tender Prey?
- Tender Prey has 11 tracks, with a runtime of 54 minutes.
- What genre is Tender Prey?
- Tender Prey is catalogued under Alternative Rock, Post-Punk, Gothic Rock.
- What BPM is Tender Prey?
- Tender Prey runs at a median tempo of 135 BPM across its tracks, most often in F minor, measured from audio analysis.
- What albums are similar to Tender Prey?
- Listeners of Tender Prey also rate Disintegration by The Cure, In Rainbows by Radiohead, The Bends by Radiohead.
Tender Prey at a glance
- Label
- Mute Records
- Produced by
- Flood
Facts from Wikidata (CC0).





