Album of the Week - Vol. 24

Push the Sky Away NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS (2013)
Week: Tue 14th to Mon 20th February 2023
Format: Spotify, iPod, CD and vinyl
Producer: Nick Launay with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Track listing:
1. We No Who U R *
2. Wide Lovely Eyes
3. Water's Edge
4. Jubilee Street *
5. Mermaids *
6. We Real Cool
7. Finishing Jubilee Street
8. Higgs Boson Blues *
9. Push the Sky Away *
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 42:40

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of its release this week is Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' fifteenth studio album, Push the Sky Away. I was alerted to this fact by various social media posts from the official Nick Cave accounts. It got me thinking about the album, and how much I liked it. To give me a bit of a push, the next round of posts detailed that for a limited time, the live album launch they performed at Fonda Theatre in L.A. during February 2013, was available to stream for free. I didn't need much encouragement! To https://ptsa.nickcave.com/live-stream I ventured, and streamed I did! I'd ever seen the show before, and apparently it was released live via YouTube when they first performed it, but it was only available for 24 hours afterwards. I don't believe that it had been seen since. Well, legally anyway. 

The concert started with the band playing the album in full, filmed in black and white footage. Noticeably absent is longtime Bad Seeds drummer Thomas Wylder, who is battling illness at the time, so percussion and drum duties fell to Jim Sclavunos and the newly-returned Barry Adamson. Although Adamson only plays bass on two tracks on Push the Sky Away, he remains on stage throughout the show, contributing guitar, keyboards and backing vocals. His appearance on this record is one of many notable facts, as this was his first time on a Bad Seeds album since 1986's Your Funeral...My Trial. It was great to see the late Conway Savage behind a keyboard, and the mighty Martyn P. Casey on the bass, of course. Cave's right hand man since the late nineties, Mr Warren Ellis, is ever present on an array of loops, instruments and even a little conducting of the small string section. George Vjestica plays on a couple of tracks on the record too, but I am unsure if he is onstage for this concert. There was at least one person I didn't recognise. 

The band, and previously mentioned string section, are also joined by a group of young children from the Silverlake Conservatory, all donned in wireless headsets. Kids from Ecole Saint Martin sing on three of the songs of Push the Sky Away, but these children sing on almost everything they're on stage for. This live performance is just as mesmerising as the recording, with Cave occasionally calling attention to the singing children. Ahhh, scary Uncle Nick, he he he...  

Once the album is flawlessly recreated, the film stock changes to full colour and the group launch into some of their old classics, starting with From Her to Eternity. The children remain with the band for O Children and The Ship Song before they retire for the night. As they begin to leave someone in the crowd yells for them to play Stagger Lee, to which replies "Well, we can't right now..", he he he, protective Uncle Nick. They then run through terrific renditions of Red Right Hand, Deanna, Love Letter and The Mercy Seat. Anyway, the performance was very enjoyable, and if you're a fan and it's still available, I highly recommend it. 

Back to the album in question! I think I bought this shortly after it came out. I had dabbled in Nick Cave's music since 1995's Murder Ballads, but have never really warmed to his eighties output. But I had amassed most of his albums since that landmark offering. While I've listened to bits of them, I don't own the Grinderman albums either. I think it was either word of mouth, or good reviews, or something which drew me to wanting this album, and I bought it without hearing any of the tracks. 

The first notes of album opener We No Who U R drew me in and I loved the track instantly. Although I did enjoy the rest of the album as a whole, it would take a few more listens before I 'got' some songs. Jubilee Street was probably the next tracks that I really took to. It seemed to be the perfect marriage between previous Bad Seed eras and the new one. The voices of the children in the song's climax just added that little something that made you feel that this was a bit special. Whereas We No Who U R used imagery and feeling in weaving a melody, Jubilee Street is more of a narrative affair, harking back to songs like The Carny and Red Right Hand. The closing title track also became a firm favourite. Almost hypnotic, and somehow sorrowful and uplifting at the same time, it's just a brilliant final song. Set right down in Cave's lower register, it feels like the full stop some albums want but never get. 

Other songs took a while to really appreciate, and I don't think I've ever really taken to Wide Lovely Eyes, although it's a pleasant enough listen. Written for Cave's wife Susie Bick (who also graces the cover), the constant jarring loop took a bit of getting used to. While it's possibly my least favourite song on the album, it's still pretty good. Two songs really came alive for me after I saw Nick Cave perform at the Fremantle Arts Centre in November 2014 for his solo Australasian tour. Despite being billed as solo Cave, there were still some Bad Seeds in tow, namely Ellis, Casey, Wylder and Adamson. The intention was make those shows an intimate affair, and not a full-blown Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds tour. But yes, the two songs in question were Mermaids and Higgs Boson Blues. I'd always kinda liked them, but after watching Cave draw the crowd in with the latter just changed the way I heard the song. He reached out and touched members of the audience like an evangelical figure, rather than a singer. His swagger and charisma was something to behold. Mermaids really came alive that night as well, with Ellis' wonderful guitar solo at the song's end garnering praise from Cave: "Warren, that was bloody lovely". The studio recording fades out unfortunately, and there's no solo, something that was rectified on the performance of it on Live from KRCW, which was issued in late 2013. I was nearly won over by Water's Edge that night as well, with Cave's suggestive interpretive dance painting a clearer picture than the studio recording. Casey's thundering bass on We Real Cool had a similar effect on me, and I dig both tracks now.

The concept of the song Finishing Jubilee Street, I absolutely love. The narrative just follows Cave after he has completed writing Jubilee Street and falls into a dream. The song didn't really do it for me though. It felt a bit like it was tacked on, despite its direct relevance to the album. I have since grown to really dig it though. I managed to let go of what it might have been, and accept it for what it is. There's a dreamy quality to it, which enhances the feverishness of Cave's descriptive lyrics. Anyway, it's an album I have come to cherish now, and it would be right up there with my favourite Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds records. It's possibly the record that has seen me cross over from casual listener to definite fan. 

There are definite eras in The Bad Seeds as members come and go, and Push the Sky Away ushers in another one. The aforementioned Grinderman albums Cave recorded with Bad Seeds alumni Ellis, Casey and Sclavunos bookend 2008's excellent Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! record, which was the last long player he released with The Bad Seeds. This mini-era was somewhat overshadowed by the thankfully short-lived arrival of Cave's moustache. Push the Sky Away is also the first album produced after the departure of founding Bad Seed Mick Harvey in 2009. Cave's right hand man for many years, the hole Harvey left the group was now being filled by Ellis, who brought loops and soundscapes to this record, cementing the new direction the band would be moving in. Where Ellis' songwriting contributions were peppered throughout earlier albums he played on, he is front and centre with Cave on this one. All songs being written by the two of them, save for Water's Edge and Finishing Jubilee Street which have drummer Wylder receiving co-credit. Sadly, this album would also be the last recorded appearance of Bad Seed Conway Savage, who passed away in 2018 after being diagnosed with a brain tumour the year before. 

Unlike some of my other subjects of the Album of the Week blog posts, I made sure to listen to this record in a variety of ways. Firstly, I wanted a headphone experience, so I streamed it via the Spottersfy. Next, it became my soundtrack in the car as I went to and from a gig over the weekend, via my iPod. At opportune times at home I spun the vinyl and the CD as well. I managed to nab the vinyl copy on Record Store Day in April 2019, while we were in St Kilda, having just seen Norah Jones a night or two beforehand. One thing I liked about listening to it in different ways is that you hook into different aspects. I really liked the vinyl experience, as Mermaids gets a chance to sink in a little bit before you flip the disc. Something that's missing in today's listening. And also holding a record-sized cover of the album artwork. 

Push the Sky Away is the sound of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds entering a new playing field. I've really enjoyed the subsequent releases of Skeleton Tree (2016) and Ghosteen (2019), with the three albums making up an unofficial trilogy of sorts. Cave and Ellis' duo effort Carnage from 2021 is also excellent. Cave teased via The Red Hand Files that there was a new Bad Seeds album coming out this year. The bad news was that he had yet to write it, he he he. I'm very interested to see what comes next.

Happy 10th anniversary, Push the Sky Away!

The Sixth Time's a Charm for Dylan!

Awrighty, well, it's been nearly five years since I stopped listening to Dylan's albums in succession. Not that I ever stopped listening to him, mind. Still do that plenty. But, I've not revisited the box set of CDs since 2018! Far freaken out! So, I decided to jump back in, me. 

As a footnote to proceedings, in between these sessions Rhona and I watched Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese on the Netflicks. Although it played fast and loose with the truth, the live performances were quite captivating. I toyed the idea of doing a Dylan tribute concert from the era, but it didn't eventuate unfortunately. I did manage to get my hands on the double CD of The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue though. Together with 1976's live album Hard Rain, it makes for a nice document of that tour. I came to dig some of the versions on those albums more than the studio recordings. I'd always loved the Hard Rain reworking of Maggie's Farm, but I really started loving the performances of A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, One Too Many Mornings, Isis and I Shall Be Released (which featured Joan Baez on backing vocals). One wonders what the 14 disc set issued in 2019 contains...

But anyway, on with the albums!

21. BOB DYLAN AT BUDOKAN (1978) (18/1/23)
As is usual for a live Dylan album, a lot of the songs here vary significantly from their studio counterparts. There's reggae influenced takes on Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (arguably the album's low point) and Knockin' On Heaven's Door, along with full band arrangements of Mr Tambourine Man, Simple Twist of Fate, Shelter From the Storm and It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding). The performance of Maggie's Farm is different again from the Hard Rain version, which would have only been two years beforehand. Interestingly, the guitar riff used in this take of I Shall Be Released sounds remarkably similar to the main guitar line repeated throughout Not Dark Yet, from the excellent 1997 record Time Out Of Mind. I found most of it pretty easy to listen to, despite the ravaging it got from the critics at the time of release. Not one to look back, Dylan rarely performs his songs the same way, so I guess we're all a little more forgiving of this now. Well, some of us are. I know what to expect at a Dylan concert. Sometimes you won't recognise a song until the chorus! The clumsy intro of the album's closing track The Times They Are A-Changin' suggest that the band don't even really know how they're going to be playing any given song either.

22. SLOW TRAIN COMING (1979) (21/1/23)
I've hit the run of Dylan albums that I was dreading. They're possibly the reason I put off listening to the rest of the box set. Hmmm, maybe not that possibly. This album, and the following Saved and Shot of Love were released hot on the heels of Dylan's conversion to Christianity. In 1971, he made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and was seen at The Wailing Wall wearing a yarmulke. Dylan spouted that he was searching for his Jewish identity, but shortly afterwards he began studying at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in California. To jump into gospel-tinged compositions that either celebrate God/Jesus, or share lessons from the Bible, must have been fairly alienating for an artist who had never really written faith-based music. And at that, not the faith he had been raised with. Having said that, the music is quite appealing, at least to my ears. 

Recorded at Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama, and produced by Barry Beckett and Jerry Wexler, the production gives most of the tracks a funky groove. The prominent organ paired with the fabulous rhythm section of bassist Tim Drummond (Neil Young, CSNY, Eric Clapton) and drummer Pick Withers (Dire Straits) make for an enjoyable soundscape. A young fella named Mark Knopfler also plays some lead guitar on the record. Dylan had caught a Dire Straits concert and pretty much invited him to be part of his next album straightaway. Little did Knopfler know that it would be the first of three offerings of Christian rock! He would return to the Dylan fold again in the eighties, producing the Infidels album. 

Kicking off with album highlight Gotta Serve Somebody, your ears are drawn to Beckett's keyboard as it permeates the plod of the drums and bass. I'd forgotten that the song came from this album, so it was a nice surprise on my first spin. One of my favourite lines from it is:

"You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy

You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy"

It just tickles me when Dylan is a little playful, and I love the idea of someone calling him 'Zimmy'. I'd name the title track as another highlight as well, although the official title is shortened to just Slow Train. The only cut that feels like a straight-out gospel song to me is the album closer When He Returns, which sees Dylan almost preaching to a lone piano backing. It doesn't feel overly religious to me, and the musicality makes up for any zealousness in the lyrics. While I was dubious about listening to these albums, I've come away from this one quite pleased. I've even given it a few spins!

23. SAVED (1980) (31/1/23)
Well, this one takes it up a notch, huh? The preachiness increases and the funk lessens. Although Beckett and Wexler return as producers, and the sessions are again at Muscle Shoals, there is a distinct shift in vibe. Tim Drummond remains on bass, but drummer Pick Withers has been replaced by session legend Jim Keltner. Gone are Beckett's funky keyboards as well, with Neil Young bandmate Spooner Oldham tackling the keys. The subject matter is much more biblical, with songs like Covenant Woman and In The Garden, which details Judas' betrayal of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Kicking off with a snippet of country standard A Satisfied Mind, the album then launches into the borderline evangelical title track, co-written with Drummond. Yeah, nah. Not one I'll probably ever play again. It's nice that Dylan was happy with his deepening faith, and let's face it, artists are moved by what's relevant to them at the time of writing. But yeah, this isn't why I listen to music. The cover was altered in future editions to show Dylan performing live, rather than the religious illustration on the original.

24. SHOT OF LOVE (1981) (2/2/23)
I found this album much easier to listen to than Saved. Although there are still strong Christian themes in songs like Property of Jesus and the opening title track, but to my ears, it's a little more palatable. The producer is now Chuck Plotkin (Bruce Springsteen, The Cowsills) and the sessions were recorded at Rundown Studios in Santa Monica. As well as the differences in production, there are also several big names contributing to the album. Ringo Starr and Ronnie Wood play on album highlight Heart of Mine, and there are also appearances from keyboardist Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) and guitarist Danny Kortchmar (Carole King, James Taylor, etc.). As such, there's more of a rock feel than an evangelical gospel one. 

Keeping Jim Keltner on the drums, and Tim Drummond on the bass (although the role is shared with Donald 'Duck' Dunn), the last of Dylan's Christian albums trilogy is an intriguing listen, but not unpleasant. One track here I really like wasn't included on the original release (and subsequently, not included in the tracklisting artwork), and I was about to be a little dismayed. Thankfully when the CD player clicked over to track six and The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar fired up, I was a happy man! It was just the B-side for the single release of Heart of Mine, but saw itself included on further pressings and releases of the album. Good thing too! I was only turned on to it via the Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs online article from a few years back (No.90, if you're interested). Again there's lines about God in there, but its not preachy. I think that's the big difference here. The other well-known track is the album closer Every Grain of Sand, which came in at No.10 on that list I just mentioned. I don't think I'm as fond of it as some, but it's quite heartfelt and has a similar feel to Forever Young. Rather than giving advice though, he's looking at himself and how he sees God in everything on the planet. It's a nice way for Dylan to end the album, and with it, the Christian influenced period of his songwriting. 

Onto the next few albums! Which will also include The Bootleg Series Vol. 16: Springtime in New York 1980-1985! That set features outtakes and alternative versions from Shot of Love, Infidels and Empire Burlesque. I need to listen to the latter two before cracking the package! Till next time.