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Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away


For years now I seem to have been providing the same review for every album that Nick Cave has released.
Not word for word of course, but the bones of them remain the same.
I flesh it out with some broad brush strokes of praise, but fundamentally I just keep reiterating that when I finish repeatedly listening to his latest offering that I then can't imagine how he will top it when he revisits the studio to provide the next one, but then with each release he does.
He simply stands knee deep in shards of glass as he smashes each ceiling he makes for himself.
As other peoples career paths rise and then fall, or even just reach a plateau, he continues mapping out new ground, or in some cases, like on Water's Edge improving on what is in most listeners mind the Nick Cave sound and style.
When you sit Dig Lazarus Dig next to Push The Sky Away, and then consider that there's been the Grinderman material between them, it's difficult not to think that here is an artist that deserves every over inflated god like genius award that is going.
I guess my point is that whenever we listen in awe to what his latest release reveals that it is easy to think that he will not be able to surpass it, but we can't commit ourselves to that thought as he consistently does.
I would struggle to think of anyone else who has not only maintained a level of quality like this throughout their careers, but continuously worked positively on their artistry in the manner he has.
He is the renaissance man of this era.
Song writing, film scores, scripts, acting, novels and more.
With Push The Sky Away it will be said that he is at the top of his game, but only until the next release.
Utterly compelling, and if we did have souls then this is what would be used to fuel them.

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