The last couple of albums from Nick Cave were brilliant but harrowing. How could they not have been, given what Cave went through, losing two sons in the space of seven years. The 2021 Carnage collaboration with (red) righthand man Warren Ellis continued in a similar vein, although the shadow of the old, howling Cave floated through White Elephant. To say sunlight was peeping through is an exaggeration, but the curtains on his darkened room were at least starting to twitch.
Words like ‘acceptance’ or ‘healing’ would be insulting, but Wild God can be heard as an artist living with what happened. Cave uses the words ‘joyous’, ‘happy’ and even ‘unchained’ to describe it, and, remarkably, you can hear where he’s coming from.
