In his latest album, Nick Cave continues to confront grief and finds a new level of absolution.
ADVERTISEMENT‘Wild God’, the 18th studio album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds sees the Australian rock band plumb new depths in their journey to the centre of grief, this time through a revelatory approach to joy in the face of tragedy.
Little is subtle about ‘Wild God’. From the opening notes of first track ‘Song of the Lake’, it’s clear that this album, the 18th by Nick Cave’s long standing band the Bad Seeds, is far from the arty punk rock that made the group famous in the first place.
Religious themes run thick through ‘Wild God’ with almost every song revolving around some kind of deity figure interacting with Cave. Instrumentally, strings soar with hymnal sublimity, gospel choirs echo in the foreground, as Cave’s own warbling baritone takes on a preacherly tone.
For those who haven’t been following Cave closely in recent years, this isn’t a sudden left-turn for the Prince of Darkness. Cave has been prolific over his 50-year career from his start with post-punk band The Birthday Party to his many movie soundtracks and side projects. He’s most known though for his work with the Bad Seeds. Together they have put together 18 albums over a 40 year time-span.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have churned through eras, from their punky origins through murderous folk tales, piano ballads, art rock, and orchestrated double albums. The most significant sonic about-turn came due to Cave’s own personal tragedy.
In 2015, Cave’s son Arthur died aged just 15 years old. In 2022, his elder son Jethro died aged 31. The tragedies have irrevocably changed Cave in his public appearances. The star who used to revel in the macabre has embraced a newfound emotionality. He grieves publicly and openly emphasises the values of compassion, empathy, and spirituality.
Cave’s output has also shifted alongside. ‘Wild God’ is the third album released by the Bad Seeds since Arthur’s death. The first, 2016’s ‘Skeleton Tree’ was a furious cry into the dark night. He followed it up with 2019’s ‘Ghosteen’, a haunting lament for those who feel both lost yet close.
Now we have ‘Wild God’. The spirituality of ‘Ghosteen’ is more formalised as Cave reaches out to religious figures such as the titular Wild God as well as a “wild ghost”, an “old god” and assorted long-haired figures.
Throughout, these religious figures lead Cave towards understandings of the world influenced by an everlasting love unbound by mortality. Frequently, lyrics make clear his yearning for – and lasting connection with – his lost loved ones.
On ‘Joy’ for example, Cave rhapsodies about his sorrow in repeated lyrics, spinning around a tonal centre of despair before he finds his pleaded for mercy and the revelation: “And all across the world they shout out their angry words/About the end of love, yet the stars stand above the earth/Bright, triumphant metaphors of love”.
But there’s still Cave’s arch cynicism to ground what could become a saccharine take on transcendental love.
‘Cinnamon Horses’ features Cave reflecting on all the ways he has been dishonest with his friends – and himself – about his mental state. “I told my friends some things were good/That love would endure if it could” he sings, almost sardonically. It feels almost like a repudiation of the empathetic responses he gives on his Red Hand Files.
Earlier, on one of the album’s sweetest songs ‘Frogs’, which tells a romantic story of falling in love on the walk home from church by focusing on the naturalist detail of frogs leaping in the Sunday rain, Cave still finds time to demand: “Lord, kill me! In the Sunday rain”.
By and large then, this is very much still a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album. Although occasional, the band still knows how to rock out with church-like piano chords, churning guitars and Warren Ellis’ shrieking strings intersecting with the near constant gospel choirs.
It might not have the rock-out replayability of the band’s earlier work, but this is an astonishing album that sees Cave reach a level of acceptance with grief that the joy he finds in turn feels earned. It’s almost impossible not to feel uplifted by the experience. When he sings “I will always love you” on ‘Final Rescue Attempt’, it feels earnest in a way almost no other artist could achieve.
ADVERTISEMENTFinally, the album ends on perhaps the most beautiful moment in Cave’s entire discography. Penultimate track ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’ is an ode to one-time bandmate and former lover Anita Lane who died in 2021. It features the only lurid lyrics on the album, before turning to full-on exultation, playing with the tense of how wonderful she is/was to emphasise Cave’s spiritual approach to death.
The celebratory song finally turns to a recording from Lane herself, reflecting on the time she spent with Cave on and off during the 70s and 80s. It’s the most vulnerable thing Cave has ever released.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' 'Wild God' is out now.
