A band that successfully released 15 albums certainly earns the right to poetic license and work packed with perplexing content, but a limit on such creativity should be observed. The Australian group Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds become an unfortunate testament to this fact with the release of Push the Sky Away, an album so tumultuous in quality of music that the entire LP is nearly unbearable. Wildly swinging between refreshing spiritual revelations and sex-fueled rants by an apparent drunk old man, Push the Sky Away is salvaged only by its soothing instrumentation.
Lead track “We No Who U R” begins on a rather positive—though melancholy—note as Cave’s coarse vocals evoke a wave of sadness to the backdrop of ringing guitar notes and flute interludes. “Wide Lovely Eyes” takes the tone in an entirely new direction with grand vocal harmonies, swift guitar chords, and a vocal style that can hardly be called monotonous, though only when compared to the remainder of the album.
In “Water’s Edge,” Cave drowns the initial appeal of Push the Sky Away and launches into a lusty, unrefined whispered tirade detailing uncivilized interactions between “city girls and country boys” on a beach. Though the racing bass and Eastern violin style could fit the theme, Cave’s grating delivery serves as an immediate turnoff.
“Mermaids” epitomizes the conflict between quality and what can only be considered quality in a world devoid of anything else. “She was a catch/We were a match/I was the match/That would fire up her snatch,” declares Cave over distorted chords before exhausting all possible “ch” rhymes in the English language. He soon mercifully transitions into more smoothly sung verses with soaring acoustic guitar-backed choruses that explore religious and other faith claims through vibrant yet relatable conceits and hyperbole, continuing the rollercoaster of a journey between pleasure and painful confusion.
Perhaps subconsciously, Nick Cave recognizes the repeated failings of Push the Sky Away. “I hope you’re listening,” Cave repeatedly mumbles on “We Real Cool,” though at that point of the album, the words will likely fall on deaf ears. In spite of the album’s occasional successes, the concept of agreeing with the above track’s title is laughable.
