This Is Not the Way Home

This is Not the Way Home is the second studio album by Australian indie rock band The Cruel Sea. The album was released in October 1991 and peaked at number 62 on the Australian albums chart. With the release of This is Not the Way Home, The Cruel Sea embarked on a European tour supporting Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

At the ARIA Music Awards of 1993, the album earned the band a nomination for Best Group. Tony Cohen was nominated for Producer of the Year.

Recording
The album was recorded at Megaphon Studios, near Sydney Airport. Producer Tony Cohen said, "The plan was for it to be a natural recording, with nothing too fancy. The studio had empty factory space, so I decided to use it as reverb chambers. Reverb on drums, vocals, backing vocals. Most times I managed to get my experiments right."

Reception
This is Not the Way Home garnered critical acclaim. The music ranged from funky Louisiana swamp blues to sweet soul, with Perkins' laconic vocals recalling the spirit of Captain Beefheart, Tony Joe White and John Lee Hooker in the process.

The Canberra Times said the album was, "like a road movie soundtrack. It has the timelessness of David Lynch's Wild At Heart. It could be the '50s or the '90s. To the shimmering guitar melodies of "This is Not the Way Home", Perkins adds a visceral element - lines about shedding blood and skin, throwing up, and grunting, groaning, his guts as well as his emotions laid bare."