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26 Aug 2024

Hand of God: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds bring us Wild God

Jeff Jenkins

STACK Writer

In ‘Wild God’, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds release their first album in five years.

“There’s no f-cking around with this record,” Nick Cave says of the Bad Seeds’ 18th studio album. “When it hits, it hits. It lifts you. It moves you. I love that about it.”

Cave produced the album with the Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis, who has been a member of the band since 1997. The Bad Seeds continue to regenerate. Cave will be 67 next month and he remains one of our most captivating performers.

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Hunters & Collectors legend Mark Seymour was there when Cave embarked on his musical journey in Melbourne at the end of the ’70s. “I was right into The Boys Next Door, big time,” Seymour says. “Nick Cave was just as cool as f-ck, excuse the language. And everybody knew it. He was like this kind of David Bowie marionette; he was doing the whole thing with his hands, and I was thinking, ‘This is just so completely strange. Why is this guy doing this?’ But it was just incredibly fascinating. He had this charisma that was erupting out of every pore.”

NME famously called Nick Cave “the Grand Lord of Gothic Darkness”. But he calls the new album “deeply and joyously infectious”.

“There is never a masterplan when we make a record. The records rather reflect back the emotional state of the writers and musicians who played them. Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we’re happy.”

Cave exploring

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have a classic catalogue. If you want to dig deep, here are three essential albums you should have in your collection:

The Boatman’s Call (1997)

Dark and minimalist, but power-packed, with references to Cave’s relationship with PJ Harvey, plus probably his most-loved song, Into My Arms.

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Murder Ballads (1996)

The duet with Kylie, Where the Wild Roses Grow, helped this become Cave’s first Top 5 hit, though as he said, “the Kylie song wasn’t any true indication of what the record was actually like”.

Henry’s Dream (1992)

They didn’t enjoy working with Neil Young’s producer David Briggs, but the result was a classic Bad Seeds album, the first to feature Martyn P. Casey and Conway Savage.

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