Album Review: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away
Anyone who knows me, or even anyone who doesn’t really know me but reads this blog has to understand how much I absolutely love and adore Nick Cave. Nick Cave the musician, the writer, the actor, the poet, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman, The Birthday Party… I feel like I have spent most of my life listening to Nick Cave, reading Nick Cave, seeing Nick Cave in concert and so forth. I literally wait for every new album with baited breath, knowing full well that I will never be disappointed. Granted, there are a few albums that I listen to less than others, but I’ve never disliked anything that he and the Bad Seeds have ever produced.
February 18th, 2013 has been outlined in red on my
calendar ever since the release date of the 15th studio album, Push the Sky Away was published. My
Christmas gift from my brother last year was a pre-order of the limited edition
deluxe version of the album (that I hope will arrive tomorrow). I had already
previewed the album when it was streaming on NPR Radio last week, but I spent
this morning in bed listening to it and taking notes, not wanting to leave the
universe that the Bad Seeds had yet again created for me. Listening to this
album brings me right back to the same emotions and feelings I had when I first
listened to No More Shall We Part
back in 2001 (emotions that I still feel every time I listen to it). Happiness,
sadness, laughter, pain, intensity, lightness, heartbreak, love; an emotional
turmoil that doesn’t leave you until well after the album is over, one that you
want to revisit as many times as possible.
If you watch the short making of video that comes with the
album download you learn that for this album the band took a different
direction than they were used to taking. Instead of creating the songs in the
usual Bad Seeds manner, this time Nick Cave would write the lyrics without any
type of chords or music in mind, and would bring them to the band to create songs
with. On the first listen you can tell that the make-up and creation process
was a lot different, and there is an element of surprise (good surprise), but
then it feels normal, like an organic process in the band, a new era in the Bad
Seeds life, one that works excellently. This is yet another reason why I love
this band so much – they never use what has always worked for them in the past
and continue along the same route in order to sell records. Instead they
surprise themselves and their audience and never give up on enhancing their
creation process and the quality of their art. That said, the album may sound
different, but it definitely still has that Bad Seeds sound that I love so
much.
Every Bad Seeds album has its own underlying theme and Push The Sky Away is no different. A lot
of the stories that each song is composed of are based in Brighton (which also
happens to be where Nick Cave resides nowadays). I can conjure up images of the
seaside in the winter and summer, grey skies and bright sun, and via the
recurring water metaphors that can be found in most songs I feel both at peace
but also thrown around and churned up by rising swells. At first glance the entire album sounds
stripped down, especially if compared to the previous release, Dig, Lazurus, Dig!!!, but that is quite
deceptive. Each song is a story backed by intricate string loops, bass lines,
drum beats and background vocals. I feel that at times Warren Ellis creates an
element of fear with his strings, but other times the sounds are comforting and
warm, at times creating a dissonance with the lyrics, at other times matching
the mood entirely.
“The past is the past
and it’s here to stay” – We Real Cool
I have no favourite song as of right now, I am still letting
the entire album create its permanent imprint on my brain and heart, but a few
stand out after the first few listens. Jubilee
Street exists in every town and city and everyone can relate to the lyrics
and to the sadness the music evokes. The video is stunning too, dark and blurry
and probing.
“You wave and wave
with wide lovely eyes, Distant waves and waves of distant love, You wave and
say goodbye” Wide Lovely Eyes
Often I feel like I am sitting in a room with Nick Cave and
all of the Bad Seeds, and a few other people, drinking wine, smoking cigarettes
and listening to him tell us about the dream he had last night, embellishing it
with metaphors and images of water, of human nature, of death and decay and
ultimately of beauty. Higgs Boson Blues
seems to encapsulate the entire feeling of the album in words. The song creates
a web of folklore, word play, gloomy, gory stories punctured through-out with
mentions of culture, pop culture, history, religion and anti-religion. I love
how this song just builds up and makes you feel uncomfortable but completely at
ease at the same time.
“Rainy days always
make me sad” - Higgs Boson Blues
The final song on the album, Push The Sky Away resonates with hope within despair, an image of
survival . This song makes me cry, just because it’s so true: “You've got to just, Keep on pushing, Keep
on pushing, Push the sky away”. It’s the perfect ending to the album,
lifting you up with the beautifully eerie violin sounds, and leaving you
feeling elated and ready to take on another day.
There are really no other words that can evoke the beauty of
this entire album, the only way to really experience it is to listen to it and
let it take you wherever you need it to take you. My love for Nick Cave will
never dwindle, especially as he continues to make me feel this way through his
music, and never fails to do anything else. I know I am not alone in thinking
this… An ongoing inspiration in my life.
