Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen

The Guardian 100

(Ghosteen Ltd)
In the first album wholly written since the death of his son, Cave reaches an extraordinary, sad and beautiful artistic evolution

What is the worst that can happen? And what happens after the worst does? Nick Cave, leader of the Bad Seeds, his band of over 30 years, has had to endure the triple bind of unimaginable tragedy, processing grief as a public figure and – more recently – the task of metabolising that suffering into some kind of continued artistic existence. Had Cave gone to ground indefinitely after the death of his teenage son Arthur in 2015, everyone would have understood.

Instead, he released an album in 2016, Skeleton Tree – a work digested by fans in the shadow of the event, but largely written before it – and an accompanying documentary, the visually lyrical One More Time With Feeling, which dealt with the aftermath of Arthur’s passing.

Listening to these songs requires a ready supply of absorbent materials and perhaps a metaphysician on call

The Guardian 0

(Ghosteen Ltd)
Cave’s voice is richer than ever on this stunning double album that sets desperation against empathy and faith

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ 18th album was casually announced, a week before its release, in answer to an online query from a fan on Cave’s Red Hand Files website. That says a lot about how Nick Cave has transformed himself over the last 12 months. Previously an entertaining but guarded interviewee, he has, more or less, thrown himself open to the public. His website began with Cave posting the words “You can ask me anything” online. He’s subsequently answered dozens of fans’ questions, from the trivial to the metaphysical, eloquently and at length.

His most recent tour was effectively its live incarnation, based around an audience Q&A, conducted without a moderator. Anyone who has attended an artist Q&A where a particularly banzai fan has ended up in possession of the microphone knows what a bold high-wire act that is. The accidental death of his son Arthur in 2015, he said, has led him to “see people in a different way”, giving him “a deep feeling toward other people and an absolute understanding of their suffering”.