Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Wild God (Album Review)
Wild God, the band's latest studio album, sees them tackle a new creative direction while also feeling like the culmination of sounds that they have been building up for their last several records...
It can nearly feel obvious to a painful extent to refer to Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' discography as consistent. Even those that disparage the band will happily admit that Cave and company have been putting out a steady stream of well-loved records for over four decades at this point. Whether you have a love for the gothic rawness of their early records such as their 1984 debut From Her to Eternity (much of which derived from Cave's previous band The Birthday Party), the tender singer/songwriter tendencies of albums like 1997's The Boatman's Call, or the more compositionally fleshed out and tonally somber nature of their recent efforts (see: 2019's tragic Ghosteen, Wild God's predecessor), the reception that the Bad Seeds have seen over the years has virtually never dipped into the negative sans the polarizing Nocturama back in 2003. Wild God, the band's latest studio album, sees them tackle a new creative direction while also feeling like the culmination of sounds that they have been building up for their last several records.
To provide context, 2013's Push the Sky Away marked a new era for Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds that was significantly more enigmatic and sparse than anything they had done in recent memory at that point. Rather than indulging in the garage rock tendencies of a record like the ever-underrated Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!, emphasis was placed on a minimalist atmosphere. This new direction provided further depth on the band's following releases, Skeleton Tree and the aforementioned Ghosteen, with the latter arguably being the single most ambiance-focused Cave record to date. Wild God manages to feel a continuation of this sound, but never in the sense that it repeats what listeners have heard on those previously mentioned records.
Rather, Wild God feels like the final chapter of this particular era of Cave's career. Much of his recent work has been marred with tragedy of various forms, most notably the awful passing of two of his sons. Whereas much of his recent work has reflected the emotional devastation that suits such a life-altering series of events, Wild God comes across as a significantly more hopeful record. It should be said that there still is a lingering feeling of weariness throughout the album that inherently comes with the life experiences that Cave has publicly faced in recent years, but there is a notable brightness of Wild God that has not been seen in his work in quite some time. The staunch mournfulness woven into his modern work is replaced here with life-affirming moments on songs like the single "Frogs." This is a collection of songs that feels willing to recognize the sorrow it has faced in the past but is also willing to welcome the warmth of the future with open arms.
A sizeable portion of this change could be attributed to some of the fresh gospel influences that the Bad Seeds take up throughout Wild God. Hearing Cave and his comrades go through a stylistic change is nothing new. Seeing as they can rarely go for more than two or three albums before taking an entirely new creative direction, it feels unlikely for anyone to be truly shocked that Wild God comes across as a wholly unique entry in the Bad Seeds' still-growing body of work. Much of these gospel sounds can be found on the most grand moments of the tracklist, such as the climatic swell towards the end of the title track or in the uplifting "Conversion." The brief album-closer "As the Water Covers the Sea" especially highlights these notes of gospel with some stunning backing vocals and drives home a deeper purpose for these newfound influences. Between the manner in which the record uplifts the listener and Cave alike and how it hones in on creating a more at peace tone for the modern line-up of the Bad Seeds, the gospel tone taken up on this record provides a very fitting form of creative closure for a period of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds that was forcibly structured around unforeseeable tragedies.
Some of the electronic influences peppered about the album are nice as well, although they feel significantly more rare than the gospel roots of much of the tracklist. Perhaps the most notable example of the former is "Final Rescue Attempt," with some very light synth-y sounds that harken back to early-2010s Bad Seeds cuts like "We No Who U R." While these sounds may be significantly more subtle than they have been on certain past releases from the group, it is nonetheless very nice to see the record tie itself in with some of their more recent material in a manner that allows it to feel like the final evolution of a larger series of albums.
It should also be said that Cave's vocals on the ballad-oriented tracks like "Long Dark Night" are particularly great, though it is his songwriting throughout Wild God that could be given similar credits in regards to creating one of the Bad Seeds' most profoundly touching records in years. With the topics of joy and love being recurring themes throughout the record and the notion of persevering through suffering to find love within the human experience once again being a centerpiece for many tracks here, it comes as no surprise that Cave brings his usual high standards of heartfelt songwriting to the table here.
The track "Joy" stands out as a more forward cut that tackles the titular feeling thanks to lines like "Yet the stars stand above the earth/Bright, triumphant metaphors of love," conveying ideas of rediscovering beauty in the universe. Meanwhile, songs like "Cinnamon Horses" and "Frogs" present similar ideas in a significantly more cryptic yet equally well-penned manner, while "O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)" utilizes the concept of faith and God to pay tribute to the late Anita Lane (a former Bad Seeds member and Cave collaborator who passed away in 2021, whose 1993 solo album Dirty Pearl is horrifically underrated).
This is all to say that Cave's work as a songwriter has always been one of the strongest points of any project that he is involved in, and the Bad Seeds are absolutely no exception. More than that, it feels nothing short of touching to hear him writing so tenderly about his faith at a point in his career where his meditations on humanity and its various corners of nature feel more thoughtful than ever before.
Wild God would be a career-defining masterpiece for an artist lesser than Nick Cave and the rest of the Bad Seeds. It is, in turn, a massive testament to the quality of their overall body of work that this record does not even crack their top five. Being another stunning record in a sea of near-perfect albums certainly does not make Wild God a lesser release of any kind, however. Hearing the Bad Seeds put out a record that feels as authentic as Wild God is not a rare event by any means, but it is beyond pleasant to hear them do so in a much more uplifting and—dare I say—downright hopeful context. Everything about this album marks the end of yet another era for one of the greatest bands to ever walk the Earth, and one cannot help but look towards the future knowing that Wild God is truly a perfect closing statement for Cave and co.'s decade-long wrestling match with the fragility of human existence.
★★★★½
Essential Tracks: The whole thing.