Album of the Week: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God
Wild God is the new album from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and the their first new album since 2019’s magnificent Ghosteen. As with the majority of releases from an artist held in as such high regard as Nick Cave, Wild God arrives with a certain expectation. Given that the last two Bad Seeds albums, both the aforementioned Ghosteen and 2016’s Skeleton Tree, saw something of a progressive change of tack for the veteran musicians in which they encased Cave’s classic, storytelling songs in experimental, ethereal soundscapes, you do tend to wonder with the arrival of a new record, just what exactly it will sound like.
Ghosteen in particular was a sombre, reflective and searching album, produced in the aftermath of the tragic passing of Cave’s son Arthur. In 2022, Cave’s eldest son Jethro also died aged 31. The singer-songwriter has said that these instances have understandably “fundamentally changed the way he sees himself and the world”. If Ghosteen was a mourning process, then new album Wild God is most definitely the sign of an artist and a person, coming out on the other side. Throughout large portions of Wild God Cave appears revitalised, energetic, excited and encouraged by the modest power of carrying on, finding comfort, solace and meaning in his work. Wild God’s arrangements are rich, intricate and brimming with elaborate instrumentation and decorative, graceful touches. The heavenly choir, stirring strings, bells and glistening glockenspiels that accompany him on opening track Song of the Lake mark Wild God as the beginning of a very different album to recent efforts.
In the interim between Bad Seeds albums, Cave and de-facto head Bad Seed Warren Ellis have been kept busy with much collaborative soundtrack work for film and TV and the effect of working in such a medium can be felt across Wild God. The title track pairs Cave’s trademark, folk inspired lyrical balladry with vast swells of dramatic strings, whipping Cave up as if caught in the eye of a hurricane, a musical storm, his voice rises beautifully in enraptured, epic fashion. Lead single Frogs continues in this vein of reinvigoration, the track is a glorious, spiritual release that presents a palpable sense of the amazement of life, faith and redemption.
Joy and Conversion, further encourage notions that Wild God is Cave’s most devout recording for some time, with the essence of many of its powerful tracks approaching the sacred. Conversion in particular is stand out, ethereal atmospheric textures permeate its piano led intro before evolving into a full band affair, as huge clangs of piano are accompanied by defiant drums and an ecstatic chorus of gospel voices. Lyrically too, Cave remains a towering savant of fascinating, enthralling fables and the track is further proof that Cave is an almost singular figure in his ability to create such grand revisions of the blues without the power of the music and words ever feeling contrived or forced. These freeing moments of deliverance arrive frequently with a degree of spontaneity that is testament to the perceptible energy of both the singer and band.
Not all of Wild God aims for such majestic heights, and fortunately in the grand scheme of the album, Cinnamon Horses offers something of a comedown from the spiritual peaks of Conversion. A simpler, straightforward arrangement of gentle strings and wraith-like backing vocals is built around Cave’s familiar poignant, slow-burning balladry as the track journeys through mystical, gothic imagery. Long Dark Night is simpler still, this brief but exquisite song finds cave evoking Leonard Cohen, the protagonist seemingly succumbing to the weight of an existential crises.
Employing something of a shuffling, hip hop rhythm, vocoder, pitch shifted vocals, phone recordings and whistles, penultimate track O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is) is the most musically diverse of Wild God’s ten tracks. It finds Cave and the band not afraid to experiment with their arrangements, expanding their palette with a playfulness in which peculiar subtleties work a treat on this tender, glimmering lullaby.
Wild God is a joyous, affectionate and generous record that is both inspiring and comforting in equal measure. It is the sound of Cave and The Bad Seeds opening yet another new chapter in what is already an extraordinary 40-year career. And on the evidence of Wild God, long may those pages keep turning.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ~ Wild God is out now on limited edition clear vinyl, standard black vinyl and CD.
