Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Wild God

By now, everybody knows about the events that have defined Nick Cave’s last decade; the double tragedy that has seen him lose two of his sons, Arthur in 2015 and Jethro in 2022. The two records he has made with the Bad Seeds in that time, ‘Skeleton Tree’ and ‘Ghosteen’, sought to work through the immensity of his grief not by pushing it away, but heading into it and surrounding himself with it; ‘Ghosteen’, especially, was a maelstrom of emotion, and along with it, perhaps his most handsome album to date. Anybody who saw This Much I Know to Be True, Andrew Dominik’s chronicle of ‘Carnage’, Nick’s 2021 collaboration with Warren Ellis, will know that the Australian is very happy to follow his nose creatively; the film opens with a scene that reveals that he has become a ceramicist in lockdown, crafting small sculptures of the devil. Unsurprisingly, religious iconography comes to the fore on ‘Wild God’, which seeks to move past the emotional tumult of ‘Ghosteen’ and into a space that transcends Nick’s grief while at the same time, still acknowledging it. 

His reunion with not just Warren, but the rest of the Bad Seeds (as well as Colin Greenwood of Radiohead) is one that has them venturing into new territory; the piano is key, whether quietly (as on ‘Joy’) or rousingly (the terrific ‘Final Rescue Attempt’). Often, as on the fantastic title track, the band are swept along on a wave of ebullience, with Nick’s lyrics seeming to extol the virtues of music and communion. It is genuinely moving to hear the one-time Prince of Darkness finding so much beauty in the world around him, even after everything life has thrown at him in recent years; ‘Wild God’ aims for transcendence, and finds it.