Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Skeleton Tree (2016)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds- Skeleton Tree (2016)

By: Ghost Writer

Losing a loved one is a very painful experience, but losing a son must be surely a devastating one, it alters the cycle of life where one expects our children to outlive us, it's a hard blow, and a very hard one to overcome, but at the same time work and art are perfect therapies to overcome such tragedies, such grime scenarios, great things can come out from such darkness. 

it seems that the new Wilco record is not the only low key record we will be hearing this autumn, I guess is the season, I guess is the overall global mood we are all feeling this days, as the sky starts turning grey, in the case of Nick Cave and his Bad Seed, this new record named Skeleton Tree, the mood has not only to do with autumn, it has also to do with the tragic loss of his son, just 15 years old, so although you can sense that feeling of despair, it is done in such a painful and beautiful way, that is becoming as a whole into one of Cave's greatest recording to date. 

Jesus Alone can send us back to two things in Cave's background, his obsession with religion, and his sympathy for a band like Suicide, whose great singer, Alan Vega's recent death in July, might end up adding even more obscure atmosphere to the song, more than ever, the Warren Ellis influence on the record feels more evident than ever, giving the song and the whole recording a very special texture, a density and a whole sense of doom rarely heard on previous Bad Seeds records, the concept is so overwhelming that is impossible not get run over by it, at times it reminds me of John Cale most painful moments in the 70s, at times it reminds me of Lou Reed's masterpiece Magic & Loss, one of my favorite Reed's records. 

The glossy 80s come to mind on Rings of Saturn,  it has a very special, euro sophisticated touch, it reminds me of the mix of hope and despair U2 were able to impregnate on Zooropa, you can sense that something is really wrong, but you keep listening hoping that it will be resolved somehow, while on Girl in Amber displays Cave's at its most ambitious, with his crawling poetry reaching the bleak beauty of Leonard Cohen nakedly brutal word work, going for heavy and hard edged words, spitting razor blades, more interesting is Magneto, another powerful bummer in the summer, with ultra-deep bass and a dark dissonant ambience, slowly revealing pieces of acoustic beauty. 

Cave opens his soul widely on the amazing I Need You, a song that acts directly as a black hole, dragging us all over into its pure bleakness and tenderness, is a powerful ballad with Cave's emotions overflowing and getting into classic Nick emotional depths, becoming more effective than ever.

Skeleton Tree is not a easy record, is dark as night with very specific moments of beauty and tenderness, it must have been a very painful record to make, but as the title track let us know, nothing is for free, and Cave's achieved greatness and maturity as a songwriter has come with a very heavy cost, Skeleton Tree is a impressive record, a masterpiece, but I guess Cave would have preferred not to have made it.