Nick Cave has offered new insight into the comfort he’s sought from religion in the face of the darkest moments of his life, as he released his critically-lauded new album Wild God on Friday.
Along with his band The Wild Seeds, the hitmaker, 66, has channelled the grief he suffered in the wake of losing two of his sons, into the new collection of songs, which he first began writing on New Year’s Day in 2023.
Wild God has also been praised by critics, who have lauded the ‘deeply human’ record as a ‘gospel rock riot’ and ‘a ferocious celebration of love.’
In 2015, Nick’s son Arthur, 15, died after taking LSD for the first time, before falling almost 20 metres from a cliff near his home in Brighton, England.
Seven years later, in 2022, Nick’s son Jethro, 31, who had schizophrenia and battled drug addiction, died in Melbourne two days after he was released from jail and two months after violently assaulting his own mother.
Nick Cave has offered new insight into the comfort he’s sought from religion in the face of the darkest moments of his life, as he released his critically-lauded new album Wild God on Friday
Along with his band The Wild Seeds, the hitmaker has channelled the grief he suffered in the wake of losing two of his sons, into the new collection of songs
Lyrics on the album offer insight into the pain Nick has suffered from his recent losses, as he sings in Song Of The Lake: ‘Cause all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. Couldn’t put us back together again.’
He also alludes to being visited by the spirit of his late son, singing in the rack Joy: ‘A ghost in giant sneakers, laughing, stars around his head … a flaming boy.’
Singing about the physical impacts of his beliefs, he added in the album’s titular song: ‘Oh Lord, well, if you’re feeling lonely and if you’re feeling blue; And if you just don’t know what to do; Bring your spirit down.’
Nick also reflects on his grief in the song Long Dark Night, opening with the words: ‘I was long inside a dream, I could not get loose.’
Speaking about the album, Nick said: ‘I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me. It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it.
‘It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious.’
The album, which his first with The Bad Seeds since 2019, has also been praised by critics with a string of positive reviews.
Writing a gushing a five-star review, The Guardian branded the album a ‘masterpiece,’ before adding: ‘Packed with remarkable songs, its mood of what you might call radical optimism is potent and contagious.
![In 2015, his son Arthur, 15, died after taking LSD for the first time and 'freaking out' before falling 60ft from a cliff near his home in Brighton (Pictured are Nick with his twin sons Arthur [right] and Earl [left])](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/08/30/15/87434379-13797033-In_2015_his_son_Arthur_15_died_after_taking_LSD_for_the_first_ti-a-70_1725028742337.jpg)
In 2015, his son Arthur, 15, died after taking LSD for the first time and ‘freaking out’ before falling 60ft from a cliff near his home in Brighton (Pictured are Nick with his twin sons Arthur [right] and Earl [left])
Another of the popstar’s sons, Jethro Lazenby, died in Australia in May 2022 just days after being released from jail (Nick and Jethro pictured in 2017)
Wild God has also been praised by critics, who have lauded the ‘deeply human’ record as a ‘gospel rock riot’ and ‘a ferocious celebration of love’
‘You leave it feeling better than you did previously: an improving experience, in the best sense of the phrase.’
The Independent said that ‘the album that will have you believing in the transformative power of love,’ while The Sunday Times described it as ‘a gospel rock riot, The Bad Seeds at their most raucous in 20 years.’
NME awarded the album four stars, and said: ‘With a lust for life, the once-dark prince is letting the light in.’
Nick previously spoke about the album in an interview with The Sunday Times, and told the publication that the prospect of an afterlife was at the forefront of his mind while writing the record, especially in the wake of his son’s deaths.
‘I’m very uncertain about what happens after you die, but it concerned me how the spirit of Arthur would feel if he saw the misery his mother and father were going through — because of his passing. It was the anniversary of his death yesterday…’
‘And one thing we can say to him now is that things are OK. I say that cautiously. There’s no closure. Things haven’t settled back to the place they were, before Arthur or Jethro died. However, we are happy.’
The Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds star, known for hits such as Into My Arms and One More Time With Feeling, moved to Los Angeles soon after Arthur died with his wife Susie and Arthur’s twin Earl because they were ‘triggered too much’ by living just down the road from where it happened.
The tragedy was widely reported and Nick said previously that this resulted in him being ‘forced to grieve publicly’.
An inquest into Arthur’s death heard that the teenager, who also had cannabis in his system, was ‘completely disorientated’ as he stumbled off a cliff into the sheer Ovingdean Gap near Brighton.
Police said the teenager was tripping out so badly he ‘couldn’t feel what was real and what wasn’t real any more’ and in a final message to a friend he said: ‘Where am I? Where am I?’.
In the minutes before the teenager died he was spotted by motorists as he ‘zig-zagged’ along the grass on the edge of the cliff before climbing over a safety fence and toppling over, it was said.
Another of the popstar’s sons, Jethro Lazenby, died in Australia in May 2022 just days after being released from jail.
The 32-year-old had been behind bars for kneeing his mother in the face during a row over cigarettes – leaving her ‘bruised and bleeding’.
Speaking days before his death in court, Jethro’s lawyer revealed he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and that affected his judgement.
The troubled man, who had spent years in and out of custody as his life spiralled out of control in a haze of illicit drugs, had been facing more criminal charges when he was found dead in a $100-a-night motel in Melbourne.
Nick alludes to being visited by the spirit of his late son on the album, singing in the track Joy: ‘A ghost in giant sneakers, laughing, stars around his head … a flaming boy’
Speaking on his blog The Red Hand Files, where Nick answers questions from fans, in June, he replied to a woman whose daughter was killed.
He wrote: ‘A parent should never have to bury their child, it makes no sense, it sits outside the natural order of things.
‘Yet here we are, you and me, living within these ghastly vacuums left behind by those we have lost.
‘I love your honesty in laying bare the biblical-sized fury we sometimes feel toward a world that has the audacity to keep on turning, regardless of our suffering.
‘How dare the world be so beautiful, we think. These are the divergent feelings of grief.’
