Album Review: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away

No Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds record comes without high expectations, especially one some five years after the previous and brilliant Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! and three after the equally terrific Grinderman 2. Push The Sky Away is not those records, and we should be thankful for it.

“The tree don't care what the little bird sings” is the record's opening line on We No Who U R, and that idea, of the indifference of life in the face of beauty, is a recurring theme here. This struggle, especially personified in a masculine battle for relevance and identity, is quintessential post-millennial Cave; questioning faith, adoring art, lost in it all. Cave has moved far from his Americana origins, now channelling a modern world he half understands; “Wikipedia is heaven when you don't want to remember” he painfully moans in We Real Cool, while Higgs Boson Blues solidifies the reality of life, aging and love; it could very well prove to be an overall career highlight.

Musically reminiscent of the Cave/Ellis soundtrack work, the droning and minimalist instrumentation is suspicious and menacing. While this is The Bad Seeds at their most restrained, this is not The Boatman's Call; it's a more stressed and aged group holding back their fury.

Long-time guitarist Mick Harvey is now gone, but just as the loss of Blixa Bargeld in '04 resulted in a renewed passion, so too does this line-up change. Push The Sky Away is Cave exhaling after Grinderman; built on the same loops, with the same wry persona; only older, more mature and reflective. It won't be the release everyone wants, but it's a brilliant, aching and fragile record.