Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Wild God
Pain and doubt fought, and faith and hope won.
Famed Australian songwriter Nick Cave has been through a lot of tragedy and hardships throughout his lifetime, particularly in the last decade - most notably, the deaths of two of his sons: Arthur, who was just 15 at the time of his passing in 2015, and Jethro, who died in 2022 aged 31. This album is a reconciliation of sorts with these events among other turmoil, such as his family’s move from their long-time home of Brighton, England, to Los Angeles.
The opening track, “Song Of The Lake”, does a fantastic job of laying out the album’s central themes out for the listener: grasping the beauty in the world around you despite all you’ve been through, building yourself back together through the lens of your past, recognizing you’ll never be the same, but that’s okay; belief in spite of trials and suffering. These themes are strongest on songs such as the title track, “Wild God”, and “Conversion”. They are conveyed through some truly stellar songwriting - Cave is very deft in his use of elevated, extremely vivid imagery, often running it through constant, pronounced, but never overbearing religious elements, varying in directness from track to track.
As for the musical elements, these are fantastic in their own right. Cave’s deep, booming baritone takes center stage in most of the songs due to how high his vocals are in the mix; the gospel-like backing vocals behind him help turn each song into a monumental, atmospheric statement, along with the orchestral instrumentation and smooth production.
Admittedly, the second half of the record isn’t as strong as the first, with the relatively small amount of diversity in the huge, grandiose soundscape making the impact of it wear off slightly; but all of this is rectified by the closing track, “As The Waters Cover The Sea” - a brief, but stunning ending of this journey, concluding it all on the uplifting, hopeful note that this album, and its creator thoroughly deserved.
Nick Cave’s continual ability to produce music this high in quality over five decades into his career is profoundly impressive; his songwriting is outstanding, and The Bad Seeds do phenomenal work around him. This album is not flawless, but, arguably, that makes the experience of listening to it even more human. It’s an excellent, deeply sincere and touching body of work.
8.9/10