I’ll make this brief and state my adoration for Nick Cave‘s music, his gruff voice and lyrics. Favourite tracks are Deanna, Into My Arms, The Ship Song, Nature Boy and Where The Wild Roses Grow featuring Kylie Minogue. On the face of it an unlikely collaboration, but it works perfectly. You need to enjoy a dose of doom and gloom to enjoy his music, although sometimes he surprises and sounds positively upbeat and happy. Content even. I can’t imagine the new album Skeleton Tree, with The Bad Seeds will be too smiley. His son Arthur died tragically last year at only 15 years of age and Skeleton Tree is said to be heavily influenced by themes of grief and death. A companion piece feature film, One More Night With Feeling is due for release tomorrow, one day earlier than the album and is directed by Andrew Dominik of Chopper fame. Apparently one of the reasons for the making of the film is so Cave can save himself from discussing his son’s death in the media. With the movie his grief can be laid out on his own terms. Here’s the first single from the album out on Friday. It’s called Jesus Alone and haunts and rattles with raw emotion when Cave sings “with my voice I am calling you“.
Megan In Sainte Maxime 
Hey Megan. Thanks for this post. I am a big fan of Nick Cave and figured Skeleton Tree would be a dark album. His grief is so palpable in the clip it is almost too difficult to watch. I imagine the album will be equally as heartbreaking.
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Hi ‘Katieslat’! I thought you might be a Cave fan. You’re right the clip is heavy. I teared up watching it. It is so raw. I hope the process was cathartic for him but the loss of a young child is too much for me to contemplate really. Very sad. I did like the track though. He’s one of the greats in my opinion. Have you seen him live?
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I’ve seen Nick live many times – the first time in the late 80’s when he was really grumpy right through to 2014 when he was engaging and (almost) charming towards the audience. Have you seen him perform?
You may have seen this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bG7wbAfcKUI
A great rendition of a beautiful song. All the performers are fabulous but for me Paul Kelly, Dougy Mandagy and Daniel Johns are absolute stand outs.
I will spend some time with the Skeleton Tree this weekend.
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Thank you so much for posting that clip. I agree Daniel Johns is fabulous and I love the strings as well. I’ve only seen him once when he was doing Grinderman and it was pouring with rain so I didn’t stay for the whole show. I know what a wimp! I’m going to give the album a whirl this week. I wonder if they’re going to tour this album?
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I’m not a music fan in general (I can go weeks without listening to a single piece of music). But Nick Cave is one of a few artists whom I like (and Where the Wild Roses Grow is my absolute favorite song). I didn’t know about the tragedy in his life, and now I’m sad. I hope he finds at least some relief through his creations.
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Hi Undina. Where The Wild Roses Grow is a beautiful song (even with it’s not so happy ending). I think this album will be a tough listen but I hope it provided a release for him as an artist and father.
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