Wild God

by

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

After a run of ethereal, mournful albums that left Nick’s singing and speak-singing exposed atop Warren Ellis’ quivering synths and queasy loops, Wild God is the first work in a while that makes full use of the Bad Seeds.

The more feral and jubilant moments on Carnage – a lockdown project credited to just Cave and Ellis – hinted at what might await us once the Bad Seeds could get back in a room together, but still they exceed expectations. It’s particularly special to hear Tommy Wydler on drums again. Rejuvenated after a long illness,, he announces himself in the very first second with a walloping, cymbal-cracking performance on ‘Song of the Lake’, a contender for their best album opener ever.

I love how Wild God expands the palette around Cave’s songs in a way that didn’t make sense for Skeleton Tree and its successors. The album pushes in about as many thrilling sonic directions as the last major waypoint in the Bad Seeds’ discography, Push The Sky Away, did. We have here another addictive record that immediately absorbs you into its unique world, and clears new paths ahead for the band. We’re used to Cave lyrics as compact, impressionistic mysteries that reflect each other (plenty of horses, long hair and God in Nick’s notebook this time), but they’re seasoned with absurd humour again, another thing Carnage signalled.

This band, though it’s something of a Ship of Theseus with all its lineup changes, has now been going for over 40 years. We’re taken all the way back to the start on ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’, a tender tribute to the late Anita Lane, who was one of the very first Bad Seeds. While the band shuffle as sweetly as they can, Cave gives us glimpses of a lovestruck time long ago – then he just once changes the line in the refrain to ‘how wonderful she was’. Anita is gone and he’s just left with just pure gratitude for her, her collaborative spirit and the path she set him on.

It’ll take time to settle, but currently ‘Song Of The Lake’ and the middle run of ‘Final Rescue Attempt’, ‘Conversion’ and ‘Cinnamon Horses’ are my favourites. I can’t wait to see how it all translates into the live show.