Gorgeous record this Wild God.

I really like it, and I know Cave himself has been making the rounds being his usual articulate self in describing his process and its result, but when you read reviews it's like he opened a door, walked into a room with the world's press waiting inside, said the word, "Joy", left, and then everyone wrote about the album with that word spinning around in their head like electrons. I don't think I've ever seen that sort of cut-and-paste journalism deployed to this extent.

I wonder if the higher-than-expected percentage of Crap votes can be correlated to one's age? Those early records were remarkable if, yes, campy and not exactly Birthday Party-level ferocious upon their release. But still, they sounded refreshing, unusual, important, and very cool. Blixa's no-riffs guitar plinking plus a solid rhythm section plus Nick Cave doing his best lounge lizard scratched an itch.

Not Crap up to and including (much of) Tender Prey. I don't care about and have paid little attention to the cabaret stuff that came later. Probably missing out on some moments here and there, to be honest. But I remember being bored silly by The Good Son, The Boatman's Call, Henry's Dream, and that whole run. Grinderman was fun for a sec if not exactly essential.

But I dunno. I'm still really glad Cave's around and doing his thing.

I think a lot of famous groups make more sense as mythological actors in the media-sphere than they do on record.

rsmurphy wrote: Sat Aug 31, 2024 11:58 am Gorgeous record this Wild God.

Agreed. I haven't had any interest since Bargeld left, even less after Harvey. But they pulled one out of the hat. It looks like Wydler and Casey are both very ill which sucks.

This was very good, particularly the 2nd half. I'm pretty sure I won't like the new record but I'll check out that book.

I'm not really feeling Wild God overall (too much gospel-esque stuff), but that "Frogs" song is a standout. He dials back the Mel Tormé on that one.

At some point deep in the forum I said something to the effect that Tom Waits makes serious songs out of silly parts and Nick Cave makes silly songs out of serious parts, and I'm gonna stick to that.

I kind of like him and kind of don't. His schtick is so heavy.

He's giving good interviews these days and it seems like his terrible loss has granted him wisdom. I like what he says. He's a smart guy. I'm sure he did used to take himself too seriously and now he sees he's just another cunt in a clown suit, it's much for the better. And he's written some solid tunes. But his singing seems to be getting ever-more preposterous and melodramatic, oh never mind. I haven't given the new one a fair shake yet to be fair though, oh never mind, never mind.

Sometimes he can sound a bit like Neil Diamond.

He's all right. I'm also quite glad he's out there doing his thing. I even quite liked the porcelain statuettes he made recently, it wasn't a bad entry in the "musician has a dab at doing fine arts" genre.

I did have a small chuckle recently when I saw him being interviewed on the news, and they opened with a little montage of him getting his makeup done for the interview, accentuating his jet-black hair while the soundtrack crooned "I'm nooot afraaaid to dye..."

I may have misheard that.

[all things considered, NOT CRAP I suppose]