STACK #238 August 2024

MUSIC FEATURE

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HAND OF GOD

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds release their first album in five years. Words Jeff Jenkins

“T here’s no f-cking around with this record,” Nick Cave says of the Bad Seeds’ 18th studio album, Wild God . “When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it.” Cave produced the album with the Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis, who has been a member of the band since 1997. The Bad Seeds continue to regenerate. Cave will be 67 next month and he remains one of our most captivating performers. Hunters & Collectors legend Mark Seymour was there when Cave embarked on his musical journey in Melbourne at the end of the ’70s. “I was right into The

Boys Next Door, big time,” Seymour says. “Nick Cave was just as cool as f-ck, excuse the language. And everybody knew it. He was like this kind of David Bowie marionette; he was doing the whole thing with his hands, and I was thinking, ‘This is just so completely strange. Why is this guy doing this?’ But it was just incredibly fascinating. He had this charisma that was

Image credit: Meghan Cullen

erupting out of every pore.” NME famously called Nick Cave “the Grand Lord of Gothic

CAVE EXPLORING Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have a classic catalogue. If you want to dig deep, here are three es sential albums you should have in your collection: The Boatman’s Call (1997) Dark and minimalist, but power-packed, with references to Cave’s relationship with PJ Harvey, plus probably his most loved song, Into My Arms . Murder Ballads (1996) The duet with Kylie, Where the Wild Roses Grow , helped this become Cave’s first Top 5 hit, though as he said, “the Kylie song wasn’t any true indication of what the record was actually like”. Henry’s Dream (1992) They didn’t enjoy working with Neil Young’s producer David Briggs, but the result was a classic Bad Seeds album, the first to feature Martyn P. Casey and Conway Savage.

Darkness”. But he calls the new album “deeply and joyously infectious”. “There is never a masterplan when we make a record. The records rather reflect back the emotional state of the writers and musicians who played them. Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we’re happy.”

Wild God by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is out Aug 30 via PIAS

Image credit: Colin Greenwood

Wild God comes 40 years after the first Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

CAVE IN

CAVE DWELLERS

album, From Her to Eternity . Cave is the last man standing from the original band, which was briefly called Nick Cave and the Cavemen, before becoming the Bad Seeds – named after the Birthday Party’s 1983 EP, The Bad Seed .

If you want to get to know Nick Cave, check out The Red Hand Files, where he directly communicates with his followers. Cave was recently asked about one of his new songs, Frogs . “Its lyrics are meaningless to me,” one fan said. “What makes you decide whether a lyric is great or should be dumped, ’cause it’s utter sh-t?”Cave explained the song’s genesis: “A couple (most likely my wife and me) walk through the rain on a Sunday morning. An alert listener will deduce that they are walking home from church because bells are ringing, and a reading from the Bible, the story of Cain and Abel, is still rolling around in their heads.”

AUGUST 2024

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