Note: This review was written by someone who did not like Nick Cave’s music prior to listening. That has changed now (As you’ll see below), but I’m not well versed in his older music, so keep that in mind.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (And even Cave’s solo work) are things that I have a strong admiration for. However, he’s yet to make something that I truly “Love”. I mean, there have been a ton of album that are truly great, but I never have desires to revisit them. Until now.

This new album, Push the Sky Away, is easily the groups most depressing effort yet. It feels like a creaky old house, with each step emitting a screechy sound. But at the same time, there’s a strange and surreal urgency to it all. Wide Lovely Eyes shows off both these qualities, with an urgent guitar playing over a more subdued Organ and Cave. Also, this is probably the best Cave has sounded, singing wise, ever. There’s now “Wow” moments from his vocals, but it’s all consistently yearning and powerful.

It’s not a young album. I mean, I compared it to an old house, of course it isn’t young. However, it isn’t aged, either. Nick Cave is 55 years old, but this still sounds incredibly fresh and interesting. It’s an album that’s moody without placing mood over music. It has some great orchestration and arrangements, but it has a consistent tone and sound. It’s oddly gorgeous.

The best thing Cave does here is give sprawling and huge moments without being overwhelming. The end of Jubilee Street (My favorite track off the album) is a rip-roaring guitar and string crescendo, with haunting “Ah-ah’s” floating above them. It’s intense and it really grabs you, but it’s not exactly loud and drowning. It’s a brilliant moment. Plus, the album has many (MANY) quieter moments that don’t get boring. We No Who U R is intense and enthralling, but it all maintains a haunting pianissimo during the entire song. There are no dynamic changes (Save a slight increase in volume during the chorus), and it still manages to sound different. Oh, and the short woodwinds during the later verses is a perfect element. Then there’s the gorgeous Water’s Edge, which keeps feeling like it’s going to explode, but it never does. While normally, that kind of trick would be annoying, it works brilliantly here. It instead falls into a quieter part, which (in retrospect) is ten times as affective as an explosion in sound.

Official Band Image (From Pitchfork)

The lyrics are somewhat unorthodox. They aren’t crazy, but they have a weird undertone to them. Nick Cave’s vocals really add a sense of yearning and emotion to every word. The weird conversation in We Real Cool is strange, and kind of confusing, but still captivating conversation. Cave really is a strange kind of poet, managing to be able to say “Wikipedia” in a song and not sound like he’s just trying to say something familiar. It just takes this album and makes it eve more goregous.

And that’s the thing that really makes me love this. It’s quiet, (mostly) subdued, and more “post” than “Punk”. But it absolutely wraps you up in this sound of wonderment. It’s a sad sound, but it’s still fascinating and beautiful. I mean, this album is gorgeous. The organs and background vocals on many songs take them from creepy little post-punk pieces to subtle and beautiful orchestrations of sadness and surreality. This album is a downer, but it’s a beautiful downer.

Truly great albums do two things: 1) Sound great (duh) and 2) Make you reevaluate an artist. A couple of years ago, I wrote Nick Cave off as being boring. Now that I hear this album, which is even quieter than most of his other stuff, I want to go back and check again. It’s pretty great.

Summary: Intense and gorgeous while being quiet and depressing, Push the Sky Away is sonically gorgeous and interesting, with great lyrics and great sonic ideas and arrangements.

Choice Cuts: We No Who U R, Jubilee Street, We Real Cool, Higgs Boson Blues

5/5

Stream We No Who U R and Jubilee Street below. Push the Sky Away is out now on Bad Seeds Ltd.