Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Ah, the Kanye album. Totally forgot about that one. I would like to hear it, but the damn guy won't budge from Tidal.
 
I think Skeleton Tree, the song, is one of the best songs of the year. I absolutely adore it. Up there with Love Letter as my fav Nick Cave song I'd say.
 
If I were to use only one word to describe this album, I'd use 'exhausted'.

I was volunteering on a camp all last week, alive, awake, alert and enthusiastic from 630am til at least 11pm every day (and I take medication which bombs you out) so I was constantly running on not enough sleep. And on the last day when all the participants had gone home and we were all dead on our feet cleaning the site from top to bottom I played this album and found it extremely soothing. Its songs seem borne from involuntary insomnia. I think I will definitely be playing it a lot in the coming days as I've got two long-haul flights and I don't really sleep on planes.
 
I'll be curious to see how these songs translate live. I bought a (very pricey) ticket to see him in June in an orchestral house. I'm expecting something intimate.
 
If any of you fucking idiots here haven't seen him and have a chance to on this tour, buy a ticket NOW, no matter the cost. More when I can articulate my thoughts properly.
 
If any of you fucking idiots here haven't seen him and have a chance to on this tour, buy a ticket NOW, no matter the cost. More when I can articulate my thoughts properly.


Awesome to hear. I'll be there in early June.
 
Highlights, of which there were many:

- Jesus Alone being about 16 times better than it is on record, the main refrain was amazing
- despite it being a gigantic outdoor arena and the fact it's the quietest song Magneto was absolutely stellar
- Higgs Boson Blues is one of the best songs ever, and live it's another five notches better. Featured some guttural screaming as well as Nick Cave breaking the fourth wall asking a woman what the fuck she was doing touching his dick
- The very touching personal epiphany I had walking back from the bar during From Her to Eternity (I don't normally go to the bar during gigs but I owed the chick I went with a drink)
- Tupelo, a song I didn't know, absolutely fucking epic as all fuck
- Jubilee Street, see Higgs Boson Blues. "I'm transforming / I'm vibrating / look at me now" is the most fierce shit you will ever see live
- Another very lovely personal epiphany during Into My Arms, Ship Song was also very nice
- I Need You being even better live than on record
- Stagger Lee being absolutely fucking mental
- Push the Sky Away an exceptional song

But I save the biggest comment for the main set closer, which was Distant Sky followed by Skeleton Tree. It was incredibly powerful, so emotional. Nick Cave is at the absolute peak of his powers. Like the stuff from Skeleton Tree and Push the Sky Away is the best shit, it's so good.

Go and see him, because live music doesn't get much better.
 
If any of you fucking idiots here haven't seen him and have a chance to on this tour, buy a ticket NOW, no matter the cost. More when I can articulate my thoughts properly.

Excellent. So excited to see him in June. Having never seen him before, I had a feeling this was the tour to see.
 
Cat Power is opening for the SF and LA shows, the latter at the Greek Theatre.

Trying to decide if I want to spend $60 on tickets. I think I already saw these two together at the Hollywood Bowl when Cave was touring Dig Lazarus Dig and Cat Power was touring The Greatest.
 
Haven't heard the former yet but strongly disagree re: Lazarus vs. Push The Sky Away.

Regardless, The Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues towers over everything else I've heard by him.
 
I'm an odd Cave/Bad Seeds fan. This how I rate what I've heard of his:

Skeleton Tree
Push the Sky Away
No More Shall We Part
Let Love In
Dig Lazarus Dig
 
Dig Lazarus Dig is not one of his better efforts, but it is good. A lot of people seem to have forgotten that album happened, especially after the last two received so much positive attention.

1. Let Love In
2. Push the Sky Away
3. No More Shall We Part
4. The Good Son
5. Skeleton Tree

Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus and The Boatman's Call are battling it out for honorable mention.
 
1. Push the Sky Away
2. Skeleton Tree
3. The Boatman's Call
4. No More Shall We Part
5. Abattoir Blues

I prefer down-tempo, mellow Cave for the most part.
 
Skeleton Tree and Push the Sky Away are both 10 times the record Dig Lazarus Dig is.

I seem to like Dig Lazarus Dig (!!!) and incidentally Grinderman (not that I rate it nearly as high as his Bad Seeds work) a lot more than most here, but I think that might be coloured a bit by what you want from his music.

If nothing else, I doubt we'd have got to here without there; what I mean by that is that I think that garage phase in the late 2000s rejuvenated Cave, gave him a bit of a shot in the arm. The Bad Seeds (at this point, more or less my synonym for Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, since I'm not sure how important anyone else is) were for a while there seeming less lethal and more the world's best polite backing band. If ever there was an album that made me worry about Nick Cave, it was Nocturama, and despite its massive acclaim, Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus didn't entirely dispel that for me.
 
Last edited:
Grinderman 2 was a great record and I'd take it over Dig Lazarus Dig. That was an interesting phase of his career.
 
Back
Top Bottom