Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Wild God – a different kind of transcendence

Few rock stars turned public intellectuals have processed grief more eloquently than former hellraiser Nick Cave, whose output since the death of his teenage son Arthur in 2015 (and 31-year-old Jethro in 2022) has yielded three studio albums, two documentaries, film soundtracks, a memoir and an agony uncle column like no other. Wild God reunites Cave and his recent key associate, Warren Ellis, with Cave’s band the Bad Seeds (plus Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood).
The aim: to make a big record that would allow for a different kind of transcendence after all Cave’s sorrow. “A flaming boy” – very like the protagonist of Cave’s 2019 album, Ghosteen – mandates the end to anguish on a highlight titled Joy, featuring the best of Cave’s elliptical piano playing, Ellis’s oscillations and the Bad Seeds’ exploratory percussion.
Powered by a spacey analogue keyboard figure, the riveting Final Rescue Attempt throws another classic Cave piano workout on to this artist’s impressive stack. But if much of Wild God is tremendous, mobilising bodies of water, religious figures, animals and allegorical storytelling in the service of unanchored feeling, the Bad Seeds do remain a tad muted in the mix. Nonetheless: Cave muttering “never mind, never mind” on Song of the Lake is an act of consolation you can believe in.