Forty years ago a raucous postpunk collective called Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – a new cult supergroup of sorts, featuring members of Einstürzende Neubauten, The Birthday Party and Magazine – released their debut album. Now they unleash their 18th studio album, the first since Ghosteen, Cave’s grief-stricken masterpiece, in 2019.
Since then a global pandemic has come and gone – and, unimaginably, following the tragedy of the death of his son Arthur, in 2015, Cave has lost a second son, Jethro, in 2022. Despite that litany of personal loss, Wild God is an uplifting album that sees the return of The Bad Seeds in all their rollicking glory after a series of more purposefully minimal records on which Cave chiefly collaborated with Warren Ellis.
There is a new Bad Seed in town. Somewhat surprisingly, his name is Colin Greenwood, and he is usually found playing bass with Radiohead. Apparently, this is not a long-term measure, as regular bassist Martyn P Casey will be touring with the band later this year. In his temporary absence, Greenwood adds great fluidity and dynamism to the sonic proceedings.
The closest reference points from Cave’s considerable back catalogue are Let Love In, from 1994, and Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, from a decade later. David Fridmann, best known for his production credits with MGMT, The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev and Mogwai, among others, works with The Bad Seeds for the first time.
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The result is a big, bold, confident-sounding record. Wild God is the best conventional (for want of a better word) Bad Seeds album in a very long time, although Ghosteen and Skeleton Tree, from 2016, remain remarkable late-career milestones that candidly address the capricious chaos of grief.
Cave turns 67 next month; on Wild God’s second-last track, O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is), he pays tribute to Anita Lane, his former girlfriend, fellow founding member of The Bad Seeds and cowriter of From Her to Eternity, their debut album’s classic title track, who died in 2021. It touchingly includes a long phone message from her. “Do you remember we used to really, really have fun?” she says. “We’d be just by ourselves, mucking around, really relaxed, not under pressure. I guess that’s how we make up songs!”
Many of Cave’s other loved ones, including his mother and old friend Shane MacGowan, are now also dead. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds are in the fifth decade of their career. By being themselves and mucking around, they’ve come up with some incredible songs. Wild God features 10 more.
