New Nick Cave album.

[holyzombiejesus]

Well, this is a surprise. I thought ol' Nick might end up in the Artists who Disappeared thread but apparently there's a new album due in September with an accompanying documentary.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds' sixteenth studio album, Skeleton Tree, will be released globally on vinyl, CD and across all digital platforms on 9th September 2016.
Skeleton Tree began its journey in late 2014 at Retreat Studios, Brighton, with further sessions at La Frette Studios, France in autumn 2015. The album was mixed at AIR Studios, London in early 2016.
The first opportunity anyone will have to hear any of the songs from the album will be to watch One More Time With Feeling, directed by Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly). The film will screen in cinemas across the world on 8th September 2016, immediately prior to the release of Skeleton Tree the following day.
Originally a performance based concept, One More Time With Feeling evolved into something much more significant as Dominik delved into the tragic backdrop of the writing and recording of the album. Interwoven throughout the Bad Seeds' filmed performance of the new album are interviews and footage shot by Dominik, accompanied by Cave's intermittent narration and improvised rumination.
Filmed in black-and-white and colour, in both 3D and 2D, the result is stark, fragile and raw.

http://nickcave.com/music/nickcaveandthebadseeds/skeleton-tree/

[Shaky]

I don't know how the fuck someone manages to pull it together after losing a child. Kudos to Nick for sticking to his path, whatever happens.

[CaledonianGonzo]

To me he seemed very much like the kind of guy who would get back to work pretty quickly.  He seems to use his oft-discussed / maligned 'writing songs in an office 9 to 5' approach as much to keep the demons at bay as as a form of discipline.

[hedgehog90]

I've recently wondered how ol' Nick would be able to carry on after such an awful thing.
For someone who writes about such personal shit you can only assume his next album will be a collection of raw mournful funeral songs.

Just for fun though imagine if it turns out more like Dig Lazarus Dig.

[holyzombiejesus]

I was wondering how on earth you'd approach an interview with him. I was going to say there'd be a massive elephant in the room but didn't because I thought people would make fun of me.

[Garam]

I think the songs were all written before the tragedy, possibly some recorded before then too. Have to wait til the next album for grief voyeurism, probably.

[hedgehog90]

I was wondering how on earth you'd approach an interview with him. I was going to say there'd be a massive elephant in the room but didn't because I thought people would make fun of me.

Ironically he was running from pink elephants when he hopped off a cliff.

SORRY EVERYONE.

[Crabwalk]

The only person you need to apologise to is yourself.

Back on track, I can hardly picture him writing a 'Tears in Heaven'. I can more likely imagine him coming back with something cathartically Grinderman-esque, in which to lose himself onstage.

[Puce Moment]

From what I understand the songs were indeed written before the 'event' and the documentary started filming before that, so I imagine it is one of those, where everything got derailed for a while, but fuck, let's just carry on anyway.

The album being released through the film is probably testament to how the whole thing cannot be divorced from real events. Also, given how mournful and depressing The Boatman's Call is because of getting dumped by Polly Jean, I imagine the new album will be wrist-slitting.

[Serge]

Oh fuck, what we really need is another fucking documentary about Nick Cave.

[holyzombiejesus]

The film's on at my local cinema next Thursday so may cycle over. Anyone else going to see it?  Heard nothing from the new album yet...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdl5sox2G6g

[Blinder Data]

Oh fuck, what we really need is another fucking documentary about Nick Cave.

his kid died mate

bit harsh

Not actually much of a fan of Nick Cave but chapeau to him for carrying on through what is one of the worst things that can happen to you.

[Serge]

Carrying on by making an album or even writing a book, ok, but another documentary? 20,000 Days On Earth was torturous navel-gazing that made for one of the most unedifying experiences of my life. That was already the second documentary about him made with his co-operation. Jesus, even Scott Walker only got one! Nobody needs to see it. Looking forward to the album, but I will never watch the film.

[non capisco]

Carrying on by making an album or even writing a book, ok, but another documentary? 20,000 Days On Earth was torturous navel-gazing that made for one of the most unedifying experiences of my life.

Ahh, I loved it. Specifically any appearance by Warren Ellis.

*Nick Cave is noodling away at some new song*
ELLIS: That really reminds me of something.
CAVE: Ah yeah, Tim Buckley?
ELLIS: Nah. *thinks* I know! Lionel Ritchie, 'All Night Long'!

That bit and when Cave goes round his house and he serves him a massive plate of eels. I doubt the new documentary is going to have such levity in it to be fair.

[Puce Moment]

I imagine it will be a total misery-fest although I have a feeling, and might be completely wrong, that they will side-step The Dead Son, and leave is as the elephant in the room. Hard to know.

I will be watching it in a cinema when it goes out on the opening night.

[Serge]

Ahh, I loved it. Specifically any appearance by Warren Ellis.

I did mean to mention that the only good bits featured Warren Ellis (and Blixa Bargeld, to be fair). Now, a documentary about Ellis has potential....

[the science eel]

The docu featuring the old Cave-monster recording at Abbey Road was fun. His kid messing around on drums, Blixa getting ratty, the backing vocalists being inadvertently obscene.

I'm never sure what to make of Nick tho'. So much of it seems false, forced. He's a great live performer - or at least he was...

[Puce Moment]

The docu featuring the old Cave-monster recording at Abbey Road was fun. His kid messing around on drums, Blixa getting ratty, the backing vocalists being inadvertently obscene.

I'm never sure what to make of Nick tho'. So much of it seems false, forced. He's a great live performer - or at least he was...

Is that the recording of No More Shall We Part? I thought that was really good, and I really like the stuff with the McGarrigle sisters trying to get their section right. Cave is quite clear about what he wants, evidenced by the nuances in the way they are directed to sing.

I always felt a bit sorry for Thomas Wydler who comes across as a bit of a spare part in that recording, with Sclavunos doing all the drum duties. Reminds me of Brian Jones in the Sympathy for the Devil Godard doc (or Wyman even, who is relegated to playing a gourd whilst Richards plays the bass).

I am told that he has quite bad arthritis and cannot hit the drums very hard these days. Sclavunos is a wonderful drummer, but Wydler's work on Henry's Dream is so good. 

[the science eel]

That's the bugger, yeah. I'd recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in NC. I respected him a little more after watching it. He's a good guy, basically.

[Pit-Pat]

He's a great live performer - or at least he was...

I saw him twice a couple of years back and he was brilliant. The second one was the recording of the live sequences for 20,000 Days (which I've not seen, despite being a huge Cave fan) and was just exceptional, particularly with Ol' Kylie Minogue turning up for the encore.

[Dr Rock]

He's never going to put out anything as good as Henry's Dream again is he?

[the science eel]

He's never going to put out anything as good as Henry's Dream again is he?

You think that one's better than Let Love In?

[Dr Rock]

You think that one's better than Let Love In?

No I think they're all brilliant up to Boatman's Call then get worse.

[Puce Moment]

You think that one's better than Let Love In?

Yes, I think it is, for me, easily his best, but it is also in my top ten albums of all time. Apparently the band were not happy with the producer, and the production on the final album, feeling it was mixed in a rock stadium way, rather than in a Poguesy way that they were aiming at. They probably should have just got Elvis Costello to do the production, but instead they had the guy that produced Neil Young.

I really do adore Let Love In but it doesn't have the storytelling and narratives that draw me into Henry's Dream, and, oddly just listening to it at the weekend, I find the production even more slick and rock sounding than the previous album.

I don't subscribe to the idea that their discography is like a triangle in terms of rating, as I think No More Shall We Part is superior to the previous three albums.

[non capisco]

'Jubilee Street' is as good a song as any he's written, I reckon.

[Puce Moment]

My non-requested preference list, from worsties to besties:

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (2008)
Nocturama (2003)
Push the Sky Away (2013)
Kicking Against the Pricks (1986)
The Firstborn Is Dead (1985)
Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus (2004)
Murder Ballads (1996)
The Good Son (1990)
Your Funeral... My Trial (1986)
The Boatman's Call (1997)
Let Love In (1994)
No More Shall We Part (2001)
From Her to Eternity (1984)
Tender Prey (1988)
Live Seeds (1993)
Henry's Dream (1992)

[Pit-Pat]

He's never going to put out anything as good as Henry's Dream again is he?

Looking at Puce Moment's list what seems clear to me is that Cave's one of the few artists who could easily surpass himself with a new album. His back catalogue is so varied and, in general, consistently strong, that the next album could well be one of his very best. Or not, of course.

'Jubilee Street' is as good a song as any he's written, I reckon.

Excellent live but I don't find the album version so compelling.

[Milverton]

The Boatman's Call is a masterpiece.

[Squink]

Puce - is the "Henry" in Henry's Dream a reference to Henry Rollins? Did some googling but it turned up nowt.

[the science eel]

'Jubilee Street' is as good a song as any he's written, I reckon.

Oh yeah.