Ghosteen - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Review
are a long running Australian rock band that has served a constantly rotating cast of musicians around frontman Nick Cave. The group is known for lyrically dense and narrative heavy songs that interpolate a wide array of styles within rock music. The band released a stark, minimalist and emotionally potent album three years ago, Skeleton Tree which dealt predominately with the death of Nick Cave's teenage son.
Review By Lavender:
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have a long history of making energetic, unique and captivating rock music that is all their own. Across records like The Boatman's Call, Murder Ballads and the always underrated Tender Prey littered the 80's and 90's with Cave's unmistakable style. While the Nick Cave discography is huge not everything is as good as say The Mercy Seat (One of the greatest songs ever written from a songwriting standpoint, by the way). The 2010's didn't start off great for Cave with Push The Sky Away a dive into one of the most minimal sounds the band had ever taken on, even given that they were never afraid to be quiet. Thankfully even though the approach didn't change, it got much more reliable on the groups 2016 record Skeleton Tree. While I didn't like this nearly as much as many people and don't consider it to be anywhere near the best records of the year, it was one of the best full length albums the band had put out in quite a long time and the title track is a runaway for their best song this millennium so far. Given that no singles were released ahead of this record and it was only announced shortly before its release there wasn't much time to build expectations or anticipate what the sound of the record may be. Now that it is here to nobodies surprise the patient songwriting and minimalist instrumentation has returned, as have the inconsistencies.
This record is split up into two discs, the first of which is a number of tightly thematic songs between three and six minutes long that range from masterfully captivating, to sheer wastes of time. Spinning Song is the opener and it features a very stark and abstract instrumental as Nick Cave tells the story of the king of rock and roll over a dreary five minutes. The song ends on a high note as Nick sings a gorgeous falsetto backed by a chorus but the time it takes getting there is questionable. Galleon Ship is yet another track that wastes a ton of time but it doesn't even really have all the conclusive or interesting of an emotional build and the song never really reaches a point where its interesting or compelling. Despite being one of the two tracks that shares the records title Ghosteen Speaks is also a big let down as for one of the busiest instrumentals on the entire record there really isn't much of anything that I like about it and it's really one of the only songs that goes beyond boring into actually bad. Finally this half of the record is closed off by Leviathan a song I can really do without as it just drags on and on making terrible use of its runtime and ultimately ending the first disk disappointingly.
Before we get into the second disk there were a handful of solid tracks that pop up on disk one. Bright Horses is one of the best tracks here lyrically as it pushes the metaphor of horses being freed over the gorgeous swells of a sung chorus. The track really doesn't have much down time despite being intimate and somber it is well organized and one of the most complete songs here. Waiting For You is a descriptive and passionate love song that is on the shorter side and has an actual verse chorus verse structure to it. It isn't one of my favorites on the record but it features some lyrical highlights and a pretty instrumental but the hook doesn't really do much for me.
The two best tracks on side one come right in the middle of it. Sun Forest has a long instrumental intro followed by some really great lyrics in the themes of a burning forest and religious fervor found in a false messiah. Nick's delivery in excellent and while the instrumental can be a little stark on the verses it picks up for the chorus and makes for a really memorable moment. Night Raid is an amazing song with some planky keys and gorgeous supporting vocals, but it's really the lyrics themselves that are brilliant and the song takes its time lyrically and instrumentally working towards a fantastic conclusion.
The second disk of this record takes a different approach with two massive tracks well over ten minutes separated by a short spoken word piece. Fireflies is that short spoken word interlude between the two long songs and it is a pretty interesting and compelling change of pace for the record that comes at the perfect time.
The title track Ghosteen pushes just over twelve minutes long and has a lot of open space in the mix that the rest of the record doesn't have, but it works in the songs favor. The track is grand and expansive in a way tat is consistently captivating alongside great lyrics and delivery from Nick. The songs highs and lows are tangible and well developed and the whole song handles it's runtime very well and makes for a rewarding and cohesive experience. Hollywood is the other track which is even longer at a massive 14 minutes and despite not being as strong as the prior tune I think it still does a pretty decent job. Mostly due to the fact that the second half of the track is so much better than the first half, after an airy build and a few passages that don't stand out that much the tune enters a haunting second half with a slow and cold developing instrumental. Once the bass kicks in the track really hits its stride and makes for a fantastic last few minutes of the song and the record itself.
Ghosteen may not be as touching and personal an emotional statement as Skeleton Tree but it does have plenty of lyrical highlights The main difference is in consistency, where most of the groups last albums 40 minutes feel pretty essential and compelling there isn't nearly enough to make over an hour of content out of this record. Too many of these songs return to the plain and underwhelming minimalism of some of the weaker Nick Cave records of old and never really make the waiting worthwhile. But on the songs here that ultimately reach worthwhile conclusions make for some of the best musical moments in indie music this year. Ultimately Ghosteen is a collection of good tracks brought down by the conclusion of too many underwhelming ones. 7/10
For more legendary indie artists check out my review of The New Pornographers In The Morse Code Of Break Lights here
