Ghosteen

Fans of The Birthday Party or early Bad Seeds are going to go nowhere near this. In fact, they stopped listening to Cave a long time ago. Meanwhile, other long time fans might be a little off put. This is no Let Love In or Boatman's Call. Musically, its a step beyond Skeleton Tree.For the many who have praised this as a masterpiece, I'm inclined to agree. I was floored by the big change in Cave's musical direction beginning with 2013's Push The Sky Away. Which was a dramatic departure from his fabulously noisy Garage Rock Grinderman albums. Musically and lyrically, Cave was working in a subtler more non-linear way than before. He went even further with Skeleton Tree. In his youth, Cave was brilliantly summoning tempests and crying blue murder. But here he is conducting what T.S. Eliot once described as a "stunning raid on the inarticulate."While most of Skeleton Tree was written before the accidental death of his son, many have associated that album as an expression of his grief. And undoubtedly it was. Ghosteen is the next step of that sad journey. What's more its captured in vivid, striking originality. Nor is it all doom and gloom.Spinning Song is true to its title. Musically, it is the sound of spinning adrift in some otherworldly ether. Cave refers to the King of Rock & Roll. While he may be alluding to Elvis, he could also be playfully referring to an earlier incarnation of his Bad Seed self. But here, the King has died and a feather has spun "upward and upward".In the song that follows, "bright horses have broken free." "We're all so sick and tired of seeing things as they are", he laments. "The world is plain to see, it don't mean we can't believe in something," he later confides. The Bright Horses might just be wild hopeful thoughts prancing through his mind as he waits for someone to come back on the next train. "Oh the train is coming," he sings. But here its clear it's also a euphemism for death. And maybe we're all waiting but need something to believe in while we wait. "Well, there are some things that are hard to explain," Cave relates. But some things need no explanation. They just need to be said. And though it isn't easy to make songs out of inconsolable grief, Cave and musical foil, Warren Ellis sure do make it easy on the ear.If Bright Horses is about waiting, the haunting Waiting For You adds a new color. Here, the waiting has turned form wondering to longing. Here the subject of that longing is asleep before him as opposed to returning from a journey. Cave's gruff, bruised baritone has never sounded to vulnerable. A simple, yet arresting song.As for Eliot's "stunning raid on the inarticulate", Night Raid lives up to title. Here he recalls an ephemeral moment of happiness and wonder. "And we leaned out of the window as the rain fell on the street." A moment Cave likens to "a sigh released from a dying star" and "runaway flakes of snow." Cave has always had a way with words, but here he commands a masterful, sublime lyricism. The musical accompaniment is just as exquisite in its delicacy.Sun Forest begins with a striking display of apocalyptic imagery. All flaming trees and horses and "a spiral of children climbing up to the sun". And everyone else "hanging from a tree." For all it's darkness, musically Cave and company keep things afloat on a haunting sea of atmospherics. Before you know it, Galleon Ship breaks in on the horizon. "We are not alone it seems, so many riders in the sky." A sentiment by which Ghosteen Speaks takes its cue. "Look for me, I am beside you," the song beckons. While the term "ghosteen" is defined as a wandering spirit, it isn't hard to see its also a play on "ghost teen".Cave has cryptically referred to this double album's first half as the "the children" and the second half, as "the parents". The "parents" consists of two longer pieces with a spoken word break in between. The title track, Ghosteen deals explicitly with loss. "This world is beautiful," Cave sings at the start. Musically, things really begin to swell and soar as Cave confesses, " A ghosteen dances in my hand". And perhaps here lies the album's heartfelt message on loss, "There is nothing wrong with loving something you can't hold in your hand." And here Loss takes Acceptance's ghostly hand and tries to move on down the road. Anyway, you cut it Ghosteen is a big deep, heartbreaking song. But one also filled with wonder, hope and a kind of surrender to some higher power greater than oneself.The spoken word interlude, Fireflies acts as a kind of break from the album. A reckoning before moving on to the ominous closing track, Hollywood. For most of the album, we've been floating in the ether of thoughts and dreams. With no specific locale. Here things come spinning back down to earth. Well, sort of. This Hollywood isn't the stuff of stars but nightmares. An unsettling vista of distant wild fires and cougars roaming the hills. Cave making his way down the Pacific Coast until he hits the shore, where wild animals roam and and sea beasts rise from the deep. And a kid who "drops his bucket and spade and climbs into the sun". Cave then recounts Buddha's story of Kisa and the mustard seed. "And I'm just waiting for peace to come," Cave concludes. And yet it remains stubbornly elusive.If grief leaves us grasping at imaginary horses and wishing to draw what is gone close, musically Cave has captured it. However, the intimacy he evokes throughout is never smothering. The music here is like an open ended horizon. One that is constantly expanding and throbbing with life. Sometimes a dull ache, at other times a sharp ray of hope. If one must make comparisons, its less Boatman's Call style balladry and more in the moody vein of side two of David Bowie's Low. Without a doubt one can hear a heavy Brian Eno influence in terms of the ambient tones and atmospherics. But this is no Music For Airports. This is the furthest thing from a chill out record. In fact, its often spine chilling. As mellow as most of Ghosteen is on the surface, there is a restless, searching spirituality at work. One that reaches out from within.As far as double albums go, Ghosteen is certainly an epic, ambitious effort. One that eclipses Cave's previous double album (2004's formidable Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus). And unlike most double albums, Ghosteen lacks the pretension and excess that often accompany these excursions. There is a simplicity here on the surface, yet beneath fathoms of unspoken complexity. Musically, its the next step beyond Push The Sky Away and Skeleton Tree yet, truly unlike any record he's ever made. True, one has to be in the mood. This album is not going to come to you. You have to go to it. And when you're ready, Ghosteen is there waiting for you with open arms. With Ghosteen, Nick Cave is working on a completely different level than ever before. Beguiling, mysterious and deeply heartfelt.

Some folks have said there are no melodies on here ... I just can't fathom that really.This is a very emotive, textural album, with some excellent writing. I kind of look at it as a somewhat polished Skeleton Tree.This album will reward the listener that allows themselves to fall into the feel, and allow the album to float there. It isn't the most texturally diverse album Cave has made, and it certainly bears no resemblance to The Birthday Party, but that was forty years ago or so folks lolHere we have a mature and hurting man, who has faced one of the ultimate pains a parent can, whether a musician or not, and he manages to express himself via these mellow, reflections in an excellent manner.Some folks find the music too dull, and I suppose that is fair, but I think that is ignoring the beauty that is within this album. We don't have any of the rip and tear stuff that the Seeds are sometimes known for, but they have given us that many times, and very well, but here we explore the delicate state of the human existence, and we do it with a gentle hand rather than an iron fist.If you allow it to, this album will take you on a beautiful journey.

I do love Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, but Ghosteen is astoundingly beautiful. It is almost other worldly in composition and style. Very highly rated by Rolling Stone Magazine, and in my opinion, it's a masterpiece. I can't stop listening to it and when I'm not listening to it, the songs roll through the underneath in my head daily. The emotional depth is unmistakable. This should be the album that wins Nick Cave a rightful place in musical history. I've never heard anything like it. If you know Nick's story these past few years about the loss of his fifteen year old son, or if you've ever experienced deep grief, it's impossible to not relate to it. Ghosteen has become my newest favorite album of all time. I can't remember when I've loved an album so much. This one is a treasure to be sure.

I have never heard anything like this album, nor will I ever again. This is my first Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album, and what an introduction to this band it was. It has compelled me to dive into their entire catalogue and now I'm wondering where the hell I've been?! This album will gently rip your heart out and then put it back. Truly a treasure, I listen to it daily and still find new sounds and meaning. Doesn't hurt to know the back story, gives added depth, but will touch you deeply nonetheless. Just a soul-changing album, highly recommended.

I have followed Nick since the early 90's. He is a fascinating music artist. I just wish he would do a few songs that rock. Yes, just like he used to. That being said, I cannot give him any less than a 4 star rating, because he is one of the best music artists around. The music is interesting and of course, the lyrics are intelligent.

Bom.

Buen disco, me vino en buen estado y no tuve problema alguno. Lo recomiendo mucho.

A wonderfull sad and beautiful album.

ピートタウンシェンドが、じっくり聴きたいアルバムだと。追悼の念が昇華して普遍性が感じられる。

Ouvir esse disco é sair de si, encontrar o mundo espiritual (psicologicamente é claro) e refletir sobre o tempo, a morte, o futuro. Há a crítica de esse álbum não é The Bad Seeds, mas Nick Cave não precisa mais berrar ou tratar temas infames, seu legado nessa temática mórbida e psicopata já está selada. Agora é manter essa placidez e contato com o outro plano nessa nova forma de compor.