For decades now, Nick Cave has made epic music, usually plumbing the depths of mankind (and usually with Warren Ellis). His most recent personal years have been particularly dark, losing two sons, Arthur and Jethro, not to mention former lover/bandmate Anita Lane. He explored those depths with The Bad Seeds in 2016’s Skeleton Tree (QRO review) and 2019’s Ghosteen (QRO review) – now he brings a much-needed grand uplift on Wild God.
Like other Cave records, there is storytelling in the old form throughout Wild God, about said god, almost like Neil Gaiman set to music in pieces such as the title track and “Conversation” (Cave has also done those – QRO’s live review of ‘Conversations with Nick Cave’). But what is notable is how much hope there is on God, from opener “Song of the Lake” through to giant choral finish of love “As the Waters Cover the Sea”. This is an album where Cave hopes, whether grand like those, or intimately on the likes of “Cinnamon Horses”, “Joy”, and “Long Dark Night”. He reaches out with “Final Rescue Attempt”, and even brings in Lane for a final phone message on “O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)”.
Nick Cave needed to make his recent dark records, and we needed to hear them. Now, Cave has needed to make a record of hope – and we definitely need to hear Wild God.
