Released: March 6, 2024
By: Josh Kitchen
"Wild God… there's no fucking around with this record. When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it." - Nick Cave on "Wild God"
From the moment the first Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' single since 2019, Wild God" (of the album of the same name) begins, it's clear Cave is feeling a little differently than he has been the last few years. On the somber, meditative, and often heart-wrenching material found on his previous three albums, Carnage, Ghosteen, and Skeleton Tree, Cave was searching for meaning in a period of profound grief and personal destruction. "Jesus Alone," released as the first single of The Bad Seeds' Skeleton Tree (which was the first Seeds album to release after the death of Cave's son, Arthur) was a droning synth-laden prayer of existentialism and grief. On "Wild God," Cave invites you to get up and join him on a harpsichord and tongue-in-cheek revival gospel tour.
The girl from 2013 Bad Seed's album Push The Sky Away's centerpiece, "Jubilee Street" is dead. She died in a bedsit in 1993, Cave raps over Bad Seeds Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos' familiar rhythm section. A wild god has been searching for her (and what all wild gods are searching for) as he flies through the dying city like a prehistoric bird. The wild god continues to search for something. Is he searching for meaning, for connection, or love? Whatever it is, its " a mirage that looms large."
As the wild god's journey reaches a breaking point, we're treated to a life-saving climax of "bring your spirit down" sung by a gospel choir as Cave cries out, letting the wild god give into an emotional release of beautiful and jubilant anarchy. Where songs like "Galleon Ship," "I Need You," and "The Spinning Song" are about confronting the face of death and life after unthinkable tragedy, it's hard to not interpret "Wild God" as being about the salvation found in loving your fellow man and the grace that comes from the love and support of others.
Since 2018, Cave has been answering fan questions on his website, called "The Red Hand Files." Cave writes that the Red Hand Files have become a "strange exercise in communal vulnerability and transparency." Cave says that they've become "at least for me, a life-changing, soul enriching exercise in commonality and togetherness." In "Wild God," Cave sings, "If you're feeling lonely, and if you're feeling blue, and you just don't know what to do, bring your spirit down." Maybe Cave himself is the titular "Wild God," and you wouldn't need to hear him sing "I'm the wild god, baby I'm the wild god!" to understand why. Of "Wild God," Cave says "Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we’re happy.” So am I.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds' 18th studio album, Wild God is out August 30.
Nick Cave, photo: Ian Allen
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