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Kirk Bage (1775 KP) rated Ghosteen by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in Music

Mar 3, 2020 (Updated Aug 6, 2020)

Ghosteen by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

2019 | Alternative, Indie

8.5

(2 Ratings)

Album Rating

My intention was to listen to this twice through and then tell you what I thought about it. In the past, I have always admired Nick Cave more in theory than in practice. Finding his heavier touches a little too “noisy”. Typified by the 2004 release Abbatoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus, where I listened to the latter, gentler side over and over, and largely left the more raucous tracks on the former alone.

Because of this personal preference, I have ended up virtually listening to Ghosteen on loop for a full week, as it leans very definitely towards the softer side of his soul – at times almost ambient dreamscape, washing over you like tired thoughts just before sleep. And, often, that is what it became for me: a night album to drift away to.

It is an album about grief, regret, spirituality and humanism. There is a misconception that it is wholly inspired by the death of Cave’s son Arthur, but, in his own words, it was more the death of band member Conway Savage that allowed the themes and lyrics to become the work.

As always, it is Cave’s poetry that emerges as the backbone and soul of every song. The melodies wash over you, at times indistinguishable as separate tracks, and you begin to feel invited into a man’s heart and mind as he explores mortality, shifting between anger, acceptance, fear and hope, in a segue of sound that feels ultimately like a mood painting, defying criticism.

At times listening feels like an intrusion; like these thoughts are too personal to eavesdrop on. At other times, you feel taken by the hand and invited to look at something beautiful. If you allow yourself to be taken on this journey willingly, your empathy will be coaxed and encouraged, and it will be safe. Sadness is only one part of grief, seems to be the message, and it’s a message I relate to and adore.

Labels such as “art-rock” and “post-punk” get thrown at Cave, in futile efforts to pin him down. I think it best not to try. For me, he is truly one of a handful of musicians alive who can be called an artist without hyperbole. His work has texture and emotion that goes beyond how we normally judge music. Making it ok to not “like” a song, as long as it tells part of the story.

For sure his best work for quite a while. At times, so perfect it seems churlish to judge it at all.