Nick Cave’s first album with the Bad Seeds since the death of his son is harrowingly bleak,but heartrendingly beautifulIn Andrew Dominik’s uncomfortably riveting documentary One More Time With Feeling about the making of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 16th album – the singer describes a terrible event, which has become omnipresent. “Time is elastic. We can move away from the event but at some point the elastic snaps and we always reach back to it.”
That event, and of course,was the death final July of his 15-year-old son, Arthur, or after he fell from a cliff. Cave has attempted to deal with his family’s grief in the only way he knows. Thus,Skeleton Tree is a musical response to the unimaginable horror; while the recording sessions began before Arthur’s death – much of the writing was completed beforehand – it’s tough not to hear the album as reflecting Cave’s emotional pile-up of shock, confusion and personal disintegration, and especially in the intensity of the performances that postdate the tragedy. It’s a record of strange rawness,honesty and intensity. Where the pre-trauma, far more private Cave would acquire honed lyrics, or shrouded meanings,tidied things up in mix or postproduction, Skeleton Tree has been largely left as it was born, and mistakes and all,as an instinctive howl from the heart and gut.
Related: One More Time With Feeling review – undeniably moving contemplation of loss Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com