By John Thomas Staff Writer
Nick Cave terrifies me. His music constantly pulsed through my father’s apartment, but it never felt very in simpatico with the rest of reality at the moment. Nick Cave was nothing more than the worst kind of movie stepfather, that insidious character that you hate, but your mom and even your dad love.
That being said, he’s an incredibly talented musician with a voice that seeps into a content oblivion at its peak. The opening track to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ new album “Push the Sky Away”, “We Kno Who U R” came out as a single near the end of last year. It played almost as constantly on my favorite local radio station in Minneapolis as my dad would have listened to it, if he were alive today. That’s high praise, considering my father grew deaf before he passed away.
The eponymous track is probably my favorite song so far this year. I haven’t read any other reviews of this album, but I would wager that a few critics have called this tune haunting. If that’s so, they’re wrong. Cave never hesitates to add sentiment into any meaning within his songs. While it can come off as grating and contrived, and it does do so on a few tracks on this record like Jubilee Street and Finishing Jubilee street, “Push the Sky Away” has an earnest tone and sincerity surrounds each syllable. I came away from the song inspired by its tragedy. It made me nostalgic for the film “The Sandlot”, when Smalls’ and his stepfather finally reconcile through the healing power of baseball, and novelty items worth ridiculous amounts of cash.
I’m glad I made it to “Push the Sky Away”, the last track of the album, and I had almost jumped ship a few times when it finally came up to the first position in my queue.
Most of the record is an enjoyable listen, but “Finishing Jubilee Street” feels unwelcomingly sensual. Not that I don’t listen to sexy beats, but this gave an aura of unease akin to a substitute teacher asking you to stay after class. There’s a line, “Hey little girl, where do you hide?” that almost made me call the police, or at least people who beat up pedophiles for a living to have them beat Nick Cave up, and then I would call the police.
Really though, besides that one creepy bump on the line, “Push the Sky Away” is a work of, if not spiritual transcendence, pleasant nostalgia and calm. If you find yourself liking this, I would give a listen to some of Bob Dylan’s lesser-known work because it means you can probably handle it.