NICK CAVE has said that his songs often “reach into the divine”. In his album Wild God, the divine presence takes centre stage. There are hints of the severe, despotic Old Testament God who stalks the songs of Cave’s groups The Bad Seeds and The Birthday Party, but the overall impression in this latest album release is of an exultant God, “jumping for love”, wild with joy.
“He’s moving around the world Like a great, big, beautiful bird”, Cave sings in the title track, as the protagonist soars away from the entombment of loss and regret, drawn to “the top of the world” where uplifted gospel voices cry, “Bring your spirit down!”
Being wild, Cave’s God remains untamed by religion, creed, or dogma. There is a moment when he feels “the drag of hell Upon his old and mortal soul” (“Song of the Lake”), and in “Wild God” there is the bizarre suggestion that he has caused “rape and pillage in the retirement village”. There are occasional Nick Cave motifs such as fratricide and eroticism here, but this collection is permeated by mysticism.
“Conversion” describes a moonlit field wherein a girl “with long dark hair Knelt among the stones and the mystical flare”, as an “old god” draws her “into him like a flame”. Choral voices celebrate this as a beautiful act, with the refrain “Touched by the spirit and touched by the flame” ascending into spiritual ecstasy.
“Long Dark Night” invokes St John of the Cross as it describes a dreamlike encounter with one “perched upon the iron rail of my bed” who knows the singer’s name: “How could he know When I myself did not even know my name?”
Cave has widely documented his journey throughout a series of recent bereavements. He lost his sons Arthur (aged 15) in 2015 and Jethro (30) in 2022, and in 2021 his mother, and his ex-bandmate and partner Anita Lane. With 2019’s acclaimed Ghosteen as a reference point, some listeners may search Wild God for signs of his spiritual, emotional, and creative development over this period.
What I find remarkable and soul-stirring about these songs is that, while most begin in lament, confusion, or questioning, they move through moments of illumination into expressions of musical and lyrical elation: “This flaming boy Who sat down on the narrow bed. . . Said, we’ve all had too much sorrow, now is the time for joy” (“Joy”).
Wild God is released on the Bad Seed Ltd label.
The Revd John Davies is the Vicar of Clapham with Keasden and Austwick with Eldroth, in the diocese of Leeds.