Friday, January 08, 2021

Cometh the hour, cometh the man

Apocalyptic times call for apocalyptic records - so it was cheering (in a perverse kind of way) to learn that Nick Cave has a new album called CARNAGE in the can.

Much as I've liked the last three records (Push The Sky Away, Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen), they've all been muted and contemplative, and I've found myself praying for a return to the blood and thunder of the Bad Seeds' earliest releases and the period from No More Shall We Part until the second Grinderman album.

Probably best not to get hopes up just on the strength of that title, though - it sounds as though it's a collaboration with Warren Ellis rather than the full band. Plus, having experienced the disappointment of a Yo La Tengo album called There's A Riot Goin' On, I should have learned not to get too excited.

Cave's revelation that a new album is on the way came at the end of a Red Hand Files post about his experience of coronavirus and lockdown, which turned into a poignant, powerful ode to the joys of live music from the perspective of a performer: "There is a terrible yearning and a feeling of a life being half-lived. I miss the thrill of stepping onto the stage, the rush of the performance, where all other concerns dissolve into a pure animal interrelation with my audience. I miss the complete surrender to the moment, the loss of self, the physicalness of it all, the feeding frenzy of communal love, the religion, the glorious exchange of bodily fluids - and The Bad Seeds themselves, of course, in all their reckless splendour, how I miss them." Whatever it is, that first post-pandemic gig is going to feel amazing for performers and punters alike, isn't it?

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