STACK #144 Oct 2016

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MUSIC FEATURE

and the bad seeds

One More Time With Feeling Words Chris Murray W ith equal measures excitement, guilty curiosity and white-hot anticipation, Nick Cave fans' anxiety on what’s next from our Dark Lord has never been this palpable. To release a film instead of deal with the probing media vultures; the absolute trust in friend and peer, director Andrew Dominik, has paid off in spades. You have never seen anything like this visceral document on the inner self and you probably never will. Predominantly shot in hand-held black & white, in 3D no less, the director’s ability to pull focus on a surreal dream, a confusing fog of consciousness within an artist’s tragedy, the resultant and extremely risky treatment here is startlingly original, candid, heartbreaking and life-affirming all at once. The unflinching approach taken at tackling the most repulsive of subject matter – the death of ones own flesh and blood – is pure and unaffected. You have never seen Cave be so bare, so vulnerable and fragile yet all the while remain dignified with a hands-in-the- air honesty at his incomprehensible state of being. You’ll understand the better-than-friends bond between him and Warren Ellis, his love and companionship with wife Susie (whom we love too, instantly) and you’ll feel your heart bend when you witness the family unit huddle, ignoring the cameras and hangers-on, and ultimately understand that inside that artist, author, songwriter and towering figure within multiple generations of adoring fans lies a human being – terrified of exactly the same things we are. Nick Cave, however, has the gift of articulation and engagement to extend the journey into ethereal, iconoclastic legend.

Skeleton Tree Words John Ferguson G iven the tragic circumstances leading up to Skeleton Tree ’s territory, yet the song begins with the line “You fell from the sky” and ends with “With my voice, I’m calling you”, which would seem his wordplay is frequently undercut by a painful memory (“You kneel, lace up his shoes, your little

recording, it was always going to be a dark affair. But no one anticipated just how haunting and emotionally harrowing Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ studio album was going to be. A raw and mournful examination of loss, grief and heartbreak set against a minimalist sonic backdrop, Skeleton Tree is undoubtedly up there with the very best records of Cave’s career. In some ways the spookiest thing about it is that, by all accounts, most of the songs were actually completed before the accident that claimed the life of his teenage son Arthur, which adds an extra layer of unease into the proceedings. Take for example, the opening song Jesus Alone : with lines like “Flowers spring from the ground/ Lambs burst from the wombs of their mothers”, we’re in familiar Cave biblical

blue-eyed boy” from Girl In Amber ) or a blunt statement of fact (“All the things we love… we lose” from Anthrocene ). The sense of disorientation is further heightened by the music. Although there are some lovely melodies and choruses – Distant Sky , which features the pure, striking tones of Danish soprano Elses Torp, is a gorgeously sad lullaby – the backing consists mainly of eerie electronic drones and hazy soundscapes, which perfectly capture the despair and bewilderment of the artist’s predicament. There are flashes of humour and hope, and the closing title track finds Cave crooning – albeit unconvincingly – “and it's alright now.” However, you are still left with the feeling that things will never be the same again.

to relate directly to the loss of his child. Or I Need You ,

which on one level could be about the devastating end to a relationship (“Nothing really matters, nothing really matters when the one you love is gone”) but is sung by Cave with in such a wavering voice that you can’t but help see it as a weary howl of grief. Elsewhere, the rich stream of consciousness of and emotionally harrowing Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ studio album was going to be No one anticipated just how haunting

OCTOBER 2016

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