‘WILD GOD’- Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds ***** Album Review

 

Words by Ryan Oxley      

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released their latest album ‘Wild God’ at the end of last month and the reviews have been unanimous, in what has been described as a biblical return to form.

As an artist, Nick Cave has been around for decades, and so have I, yet I only recently discovered his music via the Peaky Blinders soundtrack. Heading to Spotify (a premium member), I devoured his back catalogue and became instantly enamoured. Nick Cave weaves indie music with biblical storytelling of loss, love, grief, resentment, and joy. Add a hint of gospel-tinged backing vocals and it's quite the spiritual awakening. Listening for the first time was like discovering the solo sounds of Morrissey. I have a new Wild God to worship, yet the congregation remains vaguely similar. Upon hearing that the band announced a world tour (to coincide with the release of WILD GOD) I got myself a ticket to Manchester this coming November and waited with ague for the album to be released. 

It's been a few weeks since release day and I’ve managed to come out of that ‘new album’ obsession (I’m autistic, it’s a literal obsession) and I decided to write a review of it! Here it is, track-by-track:

1. Song of the Lake - A characteristic intro synonymous with the bad seeds sound. There are no surprises here but with the gospel singing, and Cave’s ‘never mind’ lament - this is everything you’d expect it to be. This song reminds me of something from ‘Push The Sky Away’ which I discovered recently.

2. Wild God - the title track borrows from ‘Jubilee Street’ and tells a story of a ‘Wild God searching for a girl who died in 1993’ (or 2013?) the piano, gospel singing, and pounding drums are a driving force.  

3. Frogs - A slower song, released on Spotify first, as an album taster, and is my favourite from this latest Bad Seeds offering. The ‘Sunday Rain’ refrain and choral crescendo, juxtaposed with Nick Cave’s always powerful vocal, and frogmarching beat give this an extra-special feel   

4. Joy - Darkly beautiful. Some songs only need a two-word description and this is one of them. I’ll add ‘stunning’ as an extra superlative.  Some people would say this is a depressing sound, but I’d call it uplifting. ‘Have mercy on me, please’.

5. Final Rescue Attempt - an electro drone remains throughout the track (which reminds me of Jeff Wayne’s ‘War Of The Worlds’ for some bizarre reason) Imagery remains strong in Cave’s lyrics in this (now essential) Bad Seeds love song.  

6. Conversion - Atmospherically morose, Nick Cave preaches from his musical pulpit alongside gospel-esque backing vocals. If this song is ‘Touched by a Flame’ as the lyrics suggest, we’d all be on fire. It is a match-strike of a song that could have easily opened the album.

7. Cinnamon Horses - ‘ I told my friends that life was sweet’ but is it? Are the ‘Cinnamon Horses’ a metaphor for sadness, a lost love perhaps? Again, it's not an unexpected sound from Nick Cave, but those lyrics are beautiful, and that is something we should always expect from this master songwriter. 

8. Long Dark Night - Sometimes, you just need Nick Cave and a piano to deliver a song with moreish moroseness. 

9. Oh Wow, Oh Wow (How Wonderful She Is) - It's a Bad Seeds song with some electronica-type vocoder on it, which works. The audio sample is intriguing and worthy of further investigation. The lyrics don't need in-depth interpretation, and that's fine cos it’s Nick Cave - we don't need that when the music is as exquisite as this.

10.  As The Waters Cover The Sea -  is a slow and tender finish to the album. By this point, the ‘wild god’ has settled, but as a new convert to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, I’ll be worshipping this ‘Wild God’ for quite some time. 

Nick Cave is on tour for 2024 / 2025 and you can find out more on his website. 

www.ryanoxleywriter.blogspot.com

Ryan Oxley Writes

 

I've written my first two monologues, which you will find on these pages; HOTEL ROOM, and LATE NIGHT, SHEAF STREET. Both are new for 2022 and have been broadcast on BBC Radio Sheffield. I'm hoping to write many more, as the year progresses. 

Back in 2000, I began by co-writing a fanzine for the indie band 'Ocean Colour Scene' and it went from there. Through a chequered career as a radio DJ, I have often written about bands, sounds, and music through the generations. The music came first though. Well-read, yes, but never about writing words down. Anyway, about 5 years ago, I began writing for the Coronation Street Blog, and a passion was reignited. Since then, I've written countless episode reviews, cast interviews, opinion pieces, and thrown thousands of words down, about my favourite TV show. I've written theatre reviews, a few pieces about The Beatles, and my other love, Morrissey.

This is basically a simple blog to promote my writing, whatever writing I do, during the weeks, months, and years. If you fancy paying me to do it, please contact me at ryanoxley60@gmail.com 

(C) @rybazoxo 2022 

An Open Letter To Morrissey

As an introverted awkward teenager, I was so glad that I found your music. You're a voice of reason; vulnerable, relatable, intelligent, inspiring, and so very real.

As an extroverted young man, I was glad when I found your music. A unique aggressiveness, bullish at times, yet impassioned, vulnerable, and relatable, and oh did it matter!

As an adult in an awkward world, I was so glad that I found your music.

I find your originality and fiercely outspoken opinions essential. Truly.

You are a voice for a jilted generation, a voice for those of us trapped in this nauseatingly woke world where the masses can't string an original thought together.

It's like you say 'The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores'

Let those masses stick to their 'thicker than pig shit pop stars with nothing to convey' Your real fans continue with you, on a journey we started as awkward teenagers.

Don't ever change, Morrissey!

Love, Ryan Oxley. Sheffield, UK April 2021

This article was originally published April 2021 on the Letters To Morrissey website 

The Beatles - IN MY LIFE

This article was first published on The Beatles Story website in May 2020.

There are places I'll remember all my life, though some have changed...

It's probably one of my favourite memories of childhood; spending a rare family day out with my parents and brother. Unbeknown to me at the time, this was a day that would be seismic in terms of my music tastes, and creative hobbies, and would even affect my wedding day! 

A debt that I can never repay nor would I want to. The year was (probably) 1993, I was 12 years old and my Dad decided to take us for a day out to Liverpool. Being from Sheffield, UK, it's about a 2-hour drive and (as I was later to learn as an adult) it’s a brilliant day out / weekend away. I’d never heard of The Beatles until then. Ironically, as a child, I loved ‘Frog Chorus’ and Dear Prudence’ but not until many years later did I make a connection. 

Entering the exhibition, I remember thinking ‘here we go’ like any teenager, my enthusiasm for museums wasn't exactly high, yet, little did I know my cultural appetite was about to be whetted by an introduction to a band that 20+ years later, I would still be in awe of. Even now, I can still clearly remember hearing ‘ I wanna hold your hand’ ‘yellow submarine’ and ‘imagine’ for the first time. To say I was hooked would be an understatement. My aunty (an original 1960s Beatles girl) gave a cassette tape of ‘Beatles love songs, I went down to my local library and borrowed the back catalogues of albums, ‘Beatlemania’ had hit this awkward teenager with gusto. 

As a child, my grandfather often told me stories about playing the trumpet in his army days, the piano, and even the drums. As a kid I realised I’d inherited a natural affinity with musical instruments, thumping the keys of my Casio keyboard became a real hobby. In music class at school, my teacher Mr Scott (also forever indebted) had heard me talking about The Beatles and gave me a listen to a song called ‘Norwegian Wood ( this bird had flown)’. I'd only known the mop-top pop songs at the time, this was a later phase of the boys' music that was completely new to me. Arriving at music college, I started to learn guitar, and of course, as my Beatles obsession grew, I gained a girlfriend, joined a band and began learning those Lennon & McCartney standards. For my 18th birthday, Dad sprang a day out to Liverpool on me and I drank my first (legal) pint of beer in the cavern club. I stood on the stage (you could back then) and looked around this historic venue and breathed in the culture. Buying a t-shirt, coasters, and posters is customary on Mathew Street, as is having your picture taken with the Lennon statue - my love of Liverpool began at this point. Several nights out in the town, a trip to Brookside Close even, countless gigs, Albert Dock, Empire Theatre, shopping in the Cavern Quarter, too many to mention. 

Cultural gems aside, those four boys gave me a passion for music that’s never left me. I’d spend hours analysing Lennon's lyrics and McCartneys melodies in my music books (pre-internet days, no online tutorials then), and began reading the countless biographies, books, films and anthologies about the Liverpool lads. As Britpop exploded and Oasis idolised The Beatles, I suddenly became one of the cool kids at school, singing in a little beat combo myself. Great days, but I digress!

But of all these friends and lovers, no one compares with you…

Taking my first trip on the magical mystery tour bus is also a memory of utter joy. Jumping on board, I remember this being the first time I'd seen those suburbs of Liverpool, Woolton, Menlove Avenue, the dingle; all the places that John, Paul, George, and Ringo grew up, real places to see! I was ecstatic and in music heaven!. I've seen the Bootleg Beatles several times live too, I've even got ‘The Beatles’ tattooed on my arm in italic writing! I wanted the logo but bottled it for some reason. With framed pictures on my living room wall, my family always knew what to buy me for birthdays and Christmas. As girlfriends came and went, day jobs changed, and things changed, as they always do. The one constant though has always been The Beatles. Like I said at the beginning of this piece, the boys played their part on the most important day of my life - my wedding day!. 

I met Sarah in the summer of 2013. It was like the first time upon hearing The Beatles all over again. Just as life-affirming and just as seismic. After a few years together we decided to marry. She knew within moments of meeting me that I was a huge fan of The Beatles. As opening gambits go it's a good one. She took an instant liking to a few of the pop classics, including ‘fool on the hill’ ‘If I fell’ and Lennon’s most beautiful ‘In My Life’, and we decided upon the latter as the first dance on the big day!

An unparalleled moment for me in terms of emotion, a life-changing moment of course, and soundtracked by my love of The Beatles. And to top it off, can you guess where we spent our honeymoon? Yes, that's right - in Liverpool of course!

Some are dead, and some are living In my life, I've loved them all...

Dear John, Paul, George and Ringo,

Thank you. 

Love always, 

Ryan