NICK CAVE - WILD GOD

I had a Godly mother share her concern that her son was a follower of Nick Cave. She was scanning those early records of The Birthday Party and the ones when The Bad Seeds were gothic, dark in their at times violent post punk.

Now years later and her son could not be listening to a voice more wholesome, a songwriter intent in adventuring into the search for God. Wild God is another utterly dazzling piece of music, radiating a depth of beauty that benefits listening to again and again. 

The album was originally to be called Joy and the song of that title is a centrepiece to all that is around it. The singer wakes up with the blues, falls to his knees, cries out for mercy and is answered by a wild ghost, the entire thing ending with a Gospel Choir sounding joyous. That choir sound is a indeed a joyous feature throughout the album.

It is not that Cave has left the trail of traumatic grief of losing two sons, that his last few albums have borne very raw witness to. There is death all around us on Wild God, most notably this time Anita Lane, an old flame and early Bad Seed whose voice even appears in a song written about her O Wow, O Wow (How Wonderful She Is).

The grief and gratitude lie cheek by jowl on Wild God but a corner has been turned. There are a lot of joyous sounds. 

On an album that is much fuller Cave’s last release Carnage. Carnage was a collaboration with just Warren Ellis. Wild God sees the Bad Seeds back in the fold with the addition of Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood.  At times I was thinking Brian Wilson in its meticulous ingenuity and Phil Spector for its sheer size of sound. 

In the end Wild God was a good choice of title for the over all work. Along with his surreal images of cinnamon horses, turpentine skies, frogs and Kris Kristofferson in an unwashed shirt, this is another selection of Nick Cave songs with prayer and conversion and holy ghosts all across them.

For me Cave has become God’s voice in our cultural moment. He hangs around with Archbishops, is honest about church attendance and that is real interests are The Bible and Jesus. He even ends this record with a benediction; As The Waters Cover the Sea. 

Yet, he sits outside any sort of Christian sub culture, untamed by by its dilutions. Wild God indeed. Interestingly he is more of a pastor than a prophet, his online Red Hand Files willing to reach into the brokenness of our lives as he answers the big questions of his fans. You could almost call it a ministry but that might be back to dilutions.

Wild God is up there close to Ghosteen, Cave’s sublime record from 2020, different but filled with equal grandeur and gloriousness. The music gives Cave’s baritone a wildness of beauty to pontificate from. He sings with an authority high above worship leaders. You could almost take him home to a godly mother. Almost!