Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God
The new album from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds mixes explosive, colourful arrangements into the grayscale flavours of recent albums
After two albums characterised by atmospheric arrangements, droning synthesisers and meditations on grief and death, Wild God sees a return to the haunted-carnival-that-may-contain-explosives vibe of the 00s Bad Seeds output.
The jaunty orchestral sounds of Song of the Lake give way to the more straightforward rock of the title track, reminiscent of Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! This isn't a mode Cave has operated in on record for a while, but his bombastic live shows are full of such moments. There's a sense that as the Bad Seeds' live show ambles towards legendary status that this is one of the first albums made with that aspect in mind.
There are still moments of experimentalism, though, like the pitch-shifted vocals of O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is) and anachronistic synth of Cinnamon Horses. But the more surprising find is the lack of coherence across Wild God. Everything the band tries out works well, whether it's plaintive Into My Arms-esque ballads like Long Dark Night, the fragmentary lyrical symbolism of Frogs or Conversion, or the near-constant interruptions of an angelic chorus (a positively triumphant feature of the title track). The album plays like a poorly constructed greatest hits in its lack of flow, despite each discrete part sounding great (give or take a clunky rhyme like the Morrissey-ish 'A mirage / Who nevertheless loomed large').
Forty years in and Nick Cave isn't showing any signs of slowing down, if any he's got too much creativity to try and contain within this album's ten songs.
Listen to: Wild God, Frogs