Wild God, the 18th studio album from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, is bright, poetic and hopeful. Featuring ten songs that lift and carry you towards a place of optimism, the album sees Nick Cave shift his music and his songwriting away from darkness and despair and towards the light. Death, loss and pain all feature on this record but Cave uses these feelings to create something magical.
Wild God is the first Bad Seeds record since 2019’s Ghosteen and Cave’s first studio album since 2021’s Carnage – an album credited to Cave and his long-time musical collaborator Warren Ellis. On previous records, as Cave himself says, there was “little room for the full band.” For Wild God, Cave knew the whole band had to be involved. “I wanted the Bad Seeds back in the fold – unchained, exuberant, and free” he said. Cave gets his wish as Wild God feels like the ‘biggest’ Bad Seeds record to date and embraces the warmth of the full band reconnected. It consists of wonderful, melodic arrangements, featuring angelic brass and string sections as well a bank of choral voices providing sumptuous backing to many tracks.
Wild God carries on the shift in sound Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have undertaken across their most recent records, moving away from their gothic, post-punk beginnings. Cave has matured and been the subject of new experiences, with the musical shift reflecting this. Wild God stands out amongst the Bad Seed’s previous albums. 2016’s Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen both dealt with grief, loss and death. Skeleton Tree was darker and bleaker, whilst Ghosteen turned these ideas on their head, focusing on existentialism and spirituality.
Wild God takes this further and is an overwhelmingly positive and hopeful album. Cave lyrically orbits faith, exploring the liminal spaces and moments; be it between belief and disbelief, or this world and the next. His characters, including Cave himself, forage for meaning. They seek answers and, on occasion, they find them.
Joy is a potent emotion throughout, demonstrated most clearly in the track ‘Joy’. The narrator is visited by “a ghost in giant sneakers” proclaiming “we’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy” – a line which sums up the whole album.
Opener ‘Song of the Lake’ sets the tone for the record. It’s big and bright, with the music building throughout the song. ‘Frogs’ and ‘Conversion’ are more sonic and free-flowing, whilst ‘Final Rescue Attempt’ is dramatic and feels like the most ‘classic Nick Cave’ track on the album.
‘Long Dark Night’ is a poetic track and ‘Cinnamon Horses’ more spiritual. Another standout track is ‘O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)’, written about Anita Lane, Cave’s former girlfriend and collaborator. This track encompasses the theme of the record as despite the song addressing Lane’s recent passing, it celebrates her, her life, and the time she and Cave spent together rather than mourning her loss.
Wild God explores new themes for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, ones of hope, optimism and euphoria. It reflects Nick Cave’s changing mindset and outlook on the world and life. He says “When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it.” He’s right. For old-school Bad Seeds fans this may be something different and unfamiliar but listening to this album is an experience and one that will hopefully leave you in a more positive place than when you started. Wild God is the sound of the curtain drawing back and the light flooding in.
Wild God is out on 30th August 2024 via PIAS. Listen and purchase here.
