Over to Paris this weekend for a concert by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – recorded at Accor Arena on November 17th by Radio France International.
This was the last concert of the current tour promoting Wild God, his eighteenth album which came out in August of this year. The tour picks up in April of next year with a sweep through the States.
Released five years after Ghosteen (2019), which was primarily a studio collaboration between Cave and Ellis, Wild God is the first studio album to feature the full participation of the Bad Seeds since Skeleton Tree (2016).
The album was a commercial success, topping the charts in Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland, while placing in the top ten across Europe. It also received highly positive reviews. Wild God received two nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Alternative Music Performance (“Song of the Lake”). The album was also nominated for the 2024 Australian Music Prize.
Cave began writing the album on New Year’s Day 2023. Recording took place at Miraval Studios, Provence and Soundtree in London. Cave produced the album alongside Warren Ellis, while mixing was handled by David Fridmann. Additional performers include Colin Greenwood of Radiohead and Luis Almau. Wild God sees the band exploring themes of “convention and experimentation” that are set to enhance “rich imagery and emotive narratives”. In a statement, Cave hopes the album has the “effect on listeners” that it had on him. He describes it as a “complicated record” but simultaneously “deeply and joyously infectious”. As their records reflect the band’s “emotional state”, Cave shared the impression that they are “happy” this time around.
The album’s full-band aesthetic was influenced by the band’s 2022 European tour, which found the band members convening for the first time since the cancellation of their planned Ghosteen tour, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ellis noted: “The last few records, we’d been deconstructing the sound. When we did the 2022 festival shows, it was so fantastic to find that beautiful chaotic energy of the Bad Seeds.” Guitarist George Vjestica elaborated, “After COVID, the tour we did in 2022, there was a pure joy in getting back on the road and playing again. And I think Nick felt that too. And I think that fed back into this record.”
Cave and Ellis decided upon the album title, Wild God, in November 2023 after finishing the mixing process at David Fridmann’s studio in Cassadaga, New York. Cave had three potential title options, noting: “Warren asked me what we were going to call the record. I had three ideas, which were titles of songs on the album, ‘Conversion’, ‘Joy’ and ‘Wild God’. We discussed the titles and thought Conversion was probably too overtly religious and may scare people off; we both liked Joy, but I was concerned that the word ‘Joy’ might be interpreted as ‘Happy’, which felt misleading. This left Wild God. We both agreed that this was a powerful and mysterious title for an album.”
Critical reaction to Wild God was overwhelmingly positive. Metacritic gave the album a score of 89/100, which the website categorised as “universal acclaim”. Alexis Petridis, writing in The Guardian, gave Wild God five stars, stating “this masterpiece will make you fall back in love with life.” Highlighting the unusually joyous nature of a Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album, he observed songs that “frequently surge into vast, ecstatic exhalations” with “Cave’s extemporised vocal sounding increasingly rapturous over the top.” He concluded, “Packed with remarkable songs, its mood of what you might call radical optimism is potent and contagious. You leave it feeling better than you did previously: an improving experience, in the best sense of the phrase.”
While you’re waiting for the U.S. leg of the journey to start, press Play and have a taste of what Europe was hearing.
