Nick Cave has been getting an awful lot of unprecedented publicity recently. For some reason, iTunes has been putting posters for Push The Sky Away all over the internet. Literally. It’s a shame that Cave should be getting immense publicity for this album, as no doubt younger generations will latch on to it thinking it's the new and edgy “cool” thing, while missing over thirty years of Nick Cave’s back-catalogue.
Push The Sky Away is the brand new album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released five years after its predecessor, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!. Compared to Lazarus, which sported a grungy, guitar-driven garage rock sound, Push The Sky Away is an incredibly mellow effort from the band, and I’m inclined to say it could even be Cave’s single mellowest album to date. It’s so mellow that I struggle to find anything interesting in it.
This is one of those albums that you put on and, half the time, don’t even notice it. After the blazing guitars and fast tempos rampant in Lazarus, I found the opening track, We No Who U R, (an absurd title, by the way) almost a breath of fresh air. But unfortunately it seemed to take me for granted, as it sounds exactly the same throughout the entire duration of the song. A song which starts with an intriguing and interesting sound is certainly a good thing; however, if it retains this particular sound without any variation, it ceases to be intriguing or interesting, and merely becomes dull and repetitive.
The whole album is like this. From start to finish, every song sounds dull and uninspired, as though Cave no longer has anything worthwhile to write about. Musically, it contains few elements which are particularly interesting to listen to. Percussion is sparingly used, almost absent at times; the bass is barely audible and merely drones in the background - the most unimaginative possible way to play a bass guitar - and the album relies almost entirely on clean guitars and Cave’s voice to carry it, both of which do nothing other than drone the whole way through.
That pretty much sums up Push The Sky Away: it’s a droning album. Rather than evolve dynamically, each song tends to incorporate long, consistent notes and motifs, having little to no variation in structure or texture, and therefore stagnating. It’s soft, and mellow, and nice to listen to, but it’s not very good. It appears very “floaty” (for lack of a better term) and light at times, unsure of what it aims to accomplish with its existence. Lacking a strong bass, Push The Sky Away sounds very thin and empty for the most part; few instruments are being used at any one time, so there isn’t a lot of texture to the sound. Even the piano is used only incidentally, so any efforts to try to capture a large, uplifting and inspiring sound with piano chords fall instantly flat as the piano fades away after ten seconds. As a result, there’s no real feeling of sincerity behind the music. It’s a very lighthearted and carefree effort from the band, and as suck it’s distinctly shallower than much of Nick Cave’s previous work.
This brings me to the lyrics, which are as uninspired and insincere as the music. Once upon a time, Cave was renowned for his lyrical exploration of transgressive and dark themes. With this latest effort, his attempts to recapture those kinds of themes sound like he’s uncertain of what he’s trying to do any more. Lines such as “I have a fetus on a leash”, which could be quite profound and thought provoking in a proper context, seem little more than throwaway lines intended to shock a few people into paying attention to the dreary music. Another example is from the third track, Water’s Edge, “Think long and hard about the girls from the capital/Who dance at the water's edge, shaking their asses”. This kind of lyrical motif is common enough in Cave’s work, and has been used before to great effect, but in the context of this particular song makes no sense, and fails to make any strong impact whatsoever, coming across instead as merely shallow. As for the rest of the lyrics, I can’t say any of them are particularly memorable.
Perhaps I would be kinder to the lyrics if they were put to some more interesting music, but I found myself losing interest fairly easily, and as it faded into the background I stopped noticing the lyrics. Music and lyrics are not separate entities - they compliment each other, but when both the music and lyrics are mediocre, putting them together doesn’t do either of them a lot of favours.
Despite what I have said of it hitherto, Push The Sky Away is far from a terrible album, and to its credit it does have its moments. It isn’t good, but it isn’t abysmal either. Jubilee Street is interesting to listen to, and unlike much of the rest of the album it does undergo some dynamic evolution. Higgs Boson Blues also has some interesting things happening. But for the most part, it lacks a level of depth and complexity which has been present on the majority of previous Cave works. And as a whole, it’s fair to say it might as well be no more than a filler album - a mediocre effort to fill the gap between Lazarus and another future album. Its existence is not justified; its entire purpose is to merely be “another Nick Cave album”.
Nick Cave used to represent the dark and melancholy impulses and aspects of the human condition. He used to have a profound poetic talent shown in his wordy and complex lyrics, and a unique songwriting ability to invoke every emotional response one could think of. But overall, this latest effort is, for the most part, nothing more than a light-hearted throwaway album - an unambitious, uninspired and bland album. It could certainly be worse; however, if you wanted a mellow, yet emotionally inspired, atmospheric and interesting listen, you would do better to just listen to Your Funeral, My Trial again.
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