NICK CAVE
Seven Psalms (Cave Things)
Nick Cave has been positioning himself as the next Leonard Cohen for some time now, with his similarly eloquent and spiritually affecting lyricism filling the gap left by one of his greatest influences. With Seven Psalms, Cave almost goes a step beyond Cohen with a collection of spoken word pieces ruminating on faith, rage, love, grief, mercy, sex and praise.
Accompaniment on Seven Psalms comes from Cave’s closest Bad Seeds collaborator, Warren Ellis, who conjures up the ambient soundscape of their film music compositions, but how much you enjoy the album will depend on how much you love Cave’s lyrics and speaking voice. The seven psalms of the title, all-around two minutes in length and written over a week in lockdown, don’t outstay their welcome and the tone is personal and introspective. A beautiful iteration of Cave’s maxim, “it doesn’t matter if God exists or not – we should reach as if he does.”
words JOHN-PAUL DAVIES
