Wild God – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
By Miles Silverstein
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds are back.
Years of hiatus have led to Wild God, the new record from the Australian post-punk/singer-songwriter/no wave/soul/everything-else seven-piece. This inventive and metaphor-heavy reconciliation with life and age sees Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in rare form, taking cues from every corner of their discography and still managing to look forward.
Wild God feels like the logical continuation of the artistry of a band that has moved through as many styles as decades they’ve been active. Born of the breakup of the violent post-punk experimentation of Melbourne band The Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have been prolific since the 1980’s. In their infancy, the outfit cemented themselves as icons of ‘80s goth rock with the abrasion of records like From Her to Eternity or Tender Prey. Moving forward from these malicious takes on Americana, the 90’s saw the group move towards a more sombre singer-songwriter style, with songs from Murder Ballads and The Boatman’s Call achieving commercial success. In the 2000’s, the Bad Seeds’ lineup changed, yet again revamping the entire style of the music produced; differences between the 90’s output and Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus or Nocturama are clear. In 2015, Cave suffered the loss of his 15-year-old son, Arthur. In 2022, he lost his eldest son, Jethro. The output of the Bad Seeds during this period reflects Cave’s intense sorrow and grief, with records like Skeleton Tree or Ghosteen acting as conduits for Cave to make sense of his troubles through spoken word and ambient soundscapes. Now Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds reunite for their first album in five years with 2024’s Wild God, an examination of the power of acceptance and moving forward.
From the opening moments of ‘Song of the Lake’, it is clear that Cave has left behind the minimalism that defined his output of the last ten years. Bells ring and women sing behind Cave’s telling of a fable about the fleeting nature of beauty. A clearly autobiographical tale of a man who could not be put back together by all the magic in the universe, ‘Song of the Lake’ acts as a mission statement for Wild God writ large: Being broken is not a problem – we can all still pick it up and keep living.
It is a record awash in love. For his sons, indeed, but for his wife and living family too. For the world. For life. On ‘Frogs’, he sings “It’s my great privilege, oh babe, to walk you home in the Sunday rain.” Wild God is Nick Cave’s statement that he has re-entered the world anew. There is a respect and awe for life’s most trivial beauties to be found everywhere on this record. Cave certainly does not shy away from the grief that gave way to this new appreciation of it all (‘Joy’ contains the lyric: “I woke up this morning with the blues all around my head/It felt like someone in my family was dead”) but he recognizes it as a part of him, something that cannot be ignored or avoided. Loss is simply a fact of life, and as long as one rises every morning, there is still life to live. There are still days to move through, experiences yet untouched.
The sound design on Wild God may only be described as mature. There is influence from every corner of the discography of the Bad Seeds. ‘Final Rescue Attempt’ substitutes analog instruments for pads and walls of electronic sound akin to Ghosteen or Cave’s 2021 collaboration with longtime Bad Seed Warren Ellis, CARNAGE. ‘Conversion’ begins similarly to Ghosteen’s ‘Spinning Song’, with Cave singing alone above a wandering synth pad, soon joined by Ellis’s eerie falsetto and a foreboding flute. That is, until two and a half minutes in, when ‘Conversion’ goes full Abattoir Blues and brings in a large band to expand the tune, complete with a gospel choir and pounding drums while Cave yells into the wall of sound: “Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful!” The cacophony of voices soon blend into one another until there is only one united voice – lyrics and words matter less than the sheer power of a collective. ‘Long Dark Night’ harkens back to The Boatman’s Call with Cave exploring pain through the lower parts of his register over a piano and an acoustic guitar. It is classic Bad Seeds, revisited in a time of appreciation and acceptance. ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’ is simply a no frills love song. It reminds the listener of ‘Breathless’ from 2004’s The Lyre of Orpheus. ‘O Wow O Wow’ is a love letter to a former member of the Bad Seeds, Anita Lane, who died in 2021. The last audio recording she ever sent Cave appears in the last minute of the song.
Wild God ends with ‘As the Waters Cover the Sea’, the record’s shortest song. In his 2022 book, Faith, Hope, and Carnage, Nick Cave opens up and reveals the role in which a turn towards spirituality helped him grapple with his loss and grief. He claimed that for years, the spirit of his son was palpable and influenced his life. Cave spoke of the importance of religion to his recovery process, and ‘As the Waters Cover the Sea’ reflects this turn towards the divine. It is a short song with few lyrics, most of which are Biblical. The final words sung on Wild God are as follows: “Peace and good tidings He will bring/Good tidings to all things.”
Wild God is available everywhere now through PIAS Recordings.