Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Wild God
Wild God is a spiritual revelation within the Bad Seeds catalogue, asking how to we get from despair to optimism?
I can't even begin to imagine what it feels like to be Nick Cave. I will never begin to feel a fraction of the pain that haunts him. The past decade in Cave's career has been a tumultuous one, to say the least. In the span of seven years, Cave had lost two of his sons, and within those years, Cave's music was focused more in the moment, showing us a personification of the anguish that fills him. It's like his head is trapped in a hole, one that's endless and that he couldn't clearly map out. But his storytelling on the past three Bad Seeds albums have enhanced and nuanced Cave's sound that was he's saying feels much more tangible and real to the ones who've been following him closely, and deeply cathartic even for those out of the loop.
Which is why I'm surprised to come out of this latest Bad Seeds release thinking that this is one of Nick Caves most optimistic statements through music in a long, long time. So how did we get here?
Much like his past trilogy and the collaboration he did with Warren Ellis on Carnage, Cave remains true to the same sound and aesthetics that enhanced the melancholy surrounding those project. Wild God follows a straight narrative, focused on a protagonist, the "Wild God," in his search for salvation, identity, and recognition. Nick throughout this album is inserting himself through this nameless, faceless character as a way to visualize his trailing thoughts. When does the pain of being in limbo end, if ever? Will there ever be comfort in times of desperation? When will we get our healing when we deserve it.
Nick doesn't thread a straight needle connecting these questions. Instead, he approaches all things at once within these ten short, jam-packed anecdotes. If there is a clear way to see through all the messiness that Cave puts on paper, I don't think this album would have the same holistic gut punch as he intended. As the audience, whatever Nick says, we listen no matter what. But if we disoriented by the rummaging of existentialist thoughts and brief glimmers of hope throughout Nick's storytelling, it gives listeners a better understanding of how the artist's mind wonders around these sensitive topics, and eventually gets to the point of resolution.
It may not be as straight as a narrative as he presented on Ghosteen, the last Bad Seeds album, but seeing these pieces of the puzzle shifting continuously throughout the runtime does add up in the long term. It's more raw in terms of structure and development, but every track deserves its place in fortifying this narrative. This won't work for everyone immediatley. I would argue that in some moments it lacks the charm that Let Love In achieved in spades, or the grandiose instrumental and vocal nuances that appear on Abbitoir Blues. But if you give each piece breathing room and let Nick's narrative run its course, the music will come together and resolve in the end.
Favorite Tracks: Song of the Lake, Wild God, Conversion, Oh Wow, Oh Wow, Long Dark Night
Least Favorite: Cinnamon Horses
7.5/10
