Review Summary: Push the Sky Away sees Nick Cave departing from the garage-rock sound of his previous releases. The result is a unique and beautiful album, though it takes a few listens to reveal itself to the listener.
It has been five years since the last Bad Seeds album, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, but front man Nick Cave has by no means been idle in the meantime – on the contrary, his garage-rock side project Grinderman released their sophomore album, which was followed by tours supporting the album, and if that were not enough, Cave wrote and released his second full-length novel The Death of Bunny Munro during this period of time as well. Now, however, Cave has called The Bad Seeds together again to record their fifteenth studio album, Push the Sky Away.
After the departure of Mick Harvey, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, Cave is now the only remaining founding member of the band, and while Cave is the primary songwriter of the band, Harvey’s instrumental work, be it on the bass or the guitar, had been an integral part of the band since the very beginning. It is therefore understandable that I was both curious and a little apprehensive about this release.
On the first listen, nothing wowed me. I welcomed Cave’s return to the more mellow, piano-driven music from his last few rock-influenced releases, as I always thought that Cave’s voice was simply suited better to this style of music, but the songs themselves weren’t anything special. It was a pleasant listen, but nothing more than that, and nothing really stuck. In fact, it was a little boring, and that was something that no other Bad Seeds release (save for maybe Nocturama) had been. I was pretty disappointed and quickly turned my back on this album – after all, why should I bother with music that is just basically a rehash of what Cave has already done better on other albums?
Boy, was I wrong. I don’t remember why I did it, exactly, but when I listened to this album again, about a month ago, it suddenly clicked: this album is a different beast from all of Cave’s other releases, in music and in mood.
Yes, the music is more mellow and simple than on Lazarus or the Grinderman albums, rather akin to The Boatman’s Call or No More Shall We Part, but at the same time, it’s something new. The whole album is based on minimalism. Every song uses one or at most two different main themes that are repeated throughout the song, and while that sounds like the perfect formula for something boring, it’s actually far from it. By subtle variation of the themes used and an amazingly emotional vocal performance by Cave, the simplicity of this album works perfectly. Each song creates its mood and sticks to it, but the performance makes it come to life.
Like in the past, Cave’s lyrics often deal with sex and death (or both, like on Murder Ballads), but his touches on other topics on this album as well, and it works surprisingly well. We No Who U R deals with the problems of privacy in our digitalized society, We Real Cool touches on how the accessibility of facts has slowly rendered religion, spirituality and myths obsolete and the enigmatic Higgs Boson Blues deals with how science allows mankind to essentially become God. Apart from a few awkward exceptions (“She was a catch / We were a match / I was the match / That would fire up her snatch / There was a catch / I was no match / I was fired from her crotch”), the lyrics are beautiful, metaphor-laden and poetic, which, along with Cave’s emotional delivery, makes the vocals the centerpiece of this album.
Musically, the album is very much focused on piano and Cave’s vocals, coupled with the odd guitar part and some string arrangements – nothing new for the Bad Seeds. Exceptions are the disturbing, bass-driven Water’s Edge and the bluesy, full-band effort Higgs Boson Blues. The instruments are never upfront, but they do what they are there to do, and they do it well. Mick Harvey has been replaced worthily, I’d say.
The title track deserves a special mention. It’s very simple, perhaps the most simple track on the album, only featuring some piano, some subtle drumming and Cave’s amazing vocals, but the melodies are amazing and the lyrics paint an emotional picture of a person hanging onto life when death would be so much easier. No matter how often I listen to this track, I get goosebumps every time – easily one of my favourite tracks that Cave has ever recorded.
Despite my praise, however, this album isn't perfect. Namely: Finishing Jubilee Street. I don’t really know what my problem is with this song, but it has never, even with repeated listens, grabbed me as much as the other tracks on this album. Maybe that will change with time, as my perception of the album changed with time as well, but for now, Finishing Jubilee Street is exactly what I perceived the whole album to initially be: pleasant to listen to, but ultimately boring and nothing that Cave hasn’t done better somewhere else. A shame really, but giving how good the rest of the album is, I can easily forgive that, because it’s not as though I actively dislike it.
What can be said in summary? Push the Sky Away is a departure from the more garage-rock style of Cave’s previous albums and shifts the focus to a more subtle approach again. It is also very much of a grower and it only grabs you after a few listens, but when you really allow yourself to truly delve into this album, what seemed to be so boring and repetitive at first suddenly becomes so much more: it’s emotional, it’s poetic, it’s subtle, but above all, it’s brilliant. Highly, highly recommended to any fan of Cave's previous more mellow work like No More Shall We Part, The Boatman's Call or Murder Ballads.
