Nick Cave 2024
Albumdata
| Artist | Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |
| Album | Wild God |
| Year of release | 2024 |
Rating
Introduction
On March 6, 2024, a new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album was announced. It was to be called Wild God and be released on August 30, 2024. The single Wild God was released that very same day, sometime later followed by the second single, Frogs.
I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me. It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it. It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious. There is never a masterplan when we make a record. The records rather reflect back the emotional state of the writers and musicians who played them. Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we’re happy.
Nick Cave, 06-03-2024
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God
Review
Wild God is the first new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album in five years. In 2019 Ghosteen was released at a time when Cave was in the midst of his grief over the death of his son Arthur, who had died in 2015. More tragedies were underway. In 2022 Cave’s son Jethro died (at the age of 31). The year before, Anita Lane had died, former lover of Cave, former member of The Bad Seeds and co-author of a couple of Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds songs (inclusing the classic From Her To Eternity).
The Wild God album ic charactaerized by the phrase “We’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy” from the song Joy. Still, Cave’s melancholy is never too far away.
The albums opens with the beautiful Song Of The Lake. The first lines clearly express Cave’s desire to acknowledge beauty again.
On the shore of the lake, an old man sat
And watched a woman bathing
With its golden touch, the light was such
That the moment was worth savingSong Of The Lake
For me, the first song that was released, title song Wild God, is the least song off the album. It wasn’t the right choice for the lead single. The second single, Frogs, is light years better. It does remind me of another song and/or vibe, but I can’t really place it, something psychedelic from the 1960s? Cave: The sheer exuberance of a song like ‘Frogs.’ It just puts a big fucking smile on my face. He’s not wrong.
I woke up this morning with the blues all around my head
I felt like someone in my family was deadJoy
And yet, Joy isn’t a heavy song. The next Final Rescue Attempt is moving in its repetition of:
And I will always love you
With the wind, with the wind, with the wind, oh, the wind in your hairFinal Rescue Attempt
Conversion is a great exciting song, whose finale was the result of improvisation in the studio. Goose bumps! Cinnamon Horses is the song that resembles the preceding Bad Seeds album Ghosteen the most, and therefore (?) fits less well with the rest of the material.
Following the intimate ballad Long Dark Night we arrive at the highlight of the album, O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is), a tribute to Anita Lane. Whistling and vocoders on a Cave song? It works, and how! The intensely moving song ends with a 2019 phone recording of Lane in which she looks back at the writing of From Her To Eternity:
Do you remember we used to really, really have fun?
‘Cause we’d be just by ourselves, mucking around, really relaxed, not under pressure
I guess that’s how we’d make up songs!
I… I remember we were in bed, and then we imagined somebody upstairs
I don’t even know if we heard footsteps, or imagined footsteps and then imagined the story
That was in that little place opposite Brixton Prison
I didn’t even realise that everyone wasn’t like that
We tried to write a contract of love
But we only got as far as doing the border
There was never any words in it
Which I thought said a lot more than anything elseO Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)
The album is closed off with the gospel As The Waters Cover The Sea, in which God is explicitly mentioned.
Peace and good tidings He will bring
Good tidings to all thingsAs The Waters Cover The Sea
Not every song is equally great on this album, but as a whole it’s a convincing statement. As always, Cave knows how to conjure up a feeling that is intimate and moving. With the beautiful build-up of Conversion and the intense emotion of O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is), the upcoming concerts in September and October will undoubtedly turn into triumphant gatherings.
Songs
All music written by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, lyrics by Nick Cave.
- Song Of The Lake
- Wild God
- Frogs
- Joy
- Final Rescue Attempt
- Conversion
- Cinnamon Horses
- Long Dark Night
- O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)
- As The Waters Cover The Sea
Musicians
The Bad Seeds
- Nick Cave – vocals, piano, background vocals
- Warren Ellis – synthesizer, piano, keyboards, guitar, background vocals
- Thomas Wydler – drums
- Martin P. Casey – bass
- Jim Sclavunos – percussion, background vocals
- George Vjestica – guitar
- Carly Paradis – whistling
With help from:
- Colin Greenwood – bass
- Luis Almau – guitar
- Adrian Miotto, Barry Clements, Corinne Bailey, Ed Tarrant, Mark Vines, Nigel Black, Rebecca Crenshaw, Richard Bissill, Rupert Whitehead, Tom Rees-Roberts – horns
- Bruce White, Ian Burdge – strings
- Diana Prince, Emily Holligan, Janet Ramus, Louise Chambers, Margo Muzangaza, Matthew Colthart, Paul Boldeau, Phebe Edwards, Simone Daly-Richards, Subrina McCalla, T Jae Cole, Wendi Rose – background vocals
In closing
What’s your opinion on this album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds? Let me know!
Spotify
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