Nick Cave's album achieves 100/100 on Metacritic

[StrawberryBlond 14,819]

While hardly a big name on GGD, Nick Cave has been making albums for years and he and his band just released their 17th album, Ghosteen, last week and after a few days, it's achieved a historic 100/100 on Metacritic, a feat never achieved before by a studio album: https://www.metacritic.com/music/ghosteen/nick-cave-the-bad-seeds

Metacritic's highest scoring albums of all time (studio albums only): https://www.metacritic.com/browse/albums/score/metascore/all/filtered

I'd only heard one Nick Cave album in full, Push The Sky Away, because I'd just started doing album reviews. I didn't know he released Skeleton Tree in 2016 and I'm only noticing this album because of its amazing achievement. Listening to it, while it's certainly not all my taste, the production values and artistry is insanely good. First off, just look at this gorgeous cover, which is a painting called The Breath Of Life by Tom duBois:

As suggested by the cover art, this is a gloriously ethereal album, designed to take you to another dimension. While the previous album, Skeleton Tree, dealt with the sudden death of Nick's 15-year-old son (who fell off a cliff in 2015), this deals with grief in a different way, in a way that tries to find peace. My favourite tracks are Bright Horses, Waiting For You, Night Raid, Sun Forest, Fireflies and Hollywood. The only one I wasn't keen on was Spinning Song but everything else is at the very least passable. It takes a while to get into and appreciate and it's very long and drawn-out. Ghosteen and Hollywood are excessively long tracks that may not to appeal to everyone but, long as it may be, if there's one track you must listen to, it's Hollywood. It nearly broke me by the end it's so beautiful. In my personal view, it's not as amazing as critics are making it out to be but that's just how it personally moves me. If I had to rate it as close to objectively as music can be, it would be near enough perfect, this is a true artist's record. It defines the essence of the word "artist."

Here's some excerpts from critic reviews:

"...it continues and extends the weightless, drifting style of its two predecessors." - The Guardian

"a work of extraordinary, unsettling scope" - NME

"a warm cloud of ambient solace" - The Independent

"not a blissful or comfortable album, but it is a hopeful one … another open letter straight from artist to audience that cuts right to the core of what means to have loved, lost and loved again." - Clash

 

While I don't know of much Nick Cave music, he keeps on occasionally entering my life by accident - the first time was through his duet with Kylie, Where The Wild Roses Grow, then the use of his track, O Children in the Harry Potter film, hearing his Push The Sky Away album a few years ago and hearing his song, Red Right Hand as the opening to the tv show, Peaky Blinders. Now he has entered my life by surprise again. Maybe it's a sign I need to listen to more of his wonderful music. While past the Grammy deadline, maybe look out for this one at the 2021 ceremony. He's only ever won a single Grammy and has barely been nominated for any awards his entire career but this score is so historic that it might just grab the attention of the academy.

[Monster7 5,697]

Never heard of them but they have my attention now

[ANTI WP 19,825]

Why your posts are always long ?? 

Never heard of him .

[thatfoxyfeeling 13,006]

I just realised he sings Red Right Hand, the theme song for Peaky Blinders. 

[Star 4,409]

Hmm, that got my attention. Gonna add it to my library and will check it out soon. Thanks for posting.

[Guillaume Hamon 6,471]

He's this kind of guy you heard about as a music genius while you will never know his music if you don't go look for it  since he's never played/ playing on any big medias.

Thanks for posting!  

[River 116,207]

It's more a 85 album, 100 is a bit too much, it has some flaws.

It's a very beautiful album, not for every ear.

[Bio 23,538]

Only know him for his Kylie feature, which is one of my favorite Kylie songs. Gonna give it a listen.

[Ryusei 61,110]

Ok this might be nitpicking but why is the score 100 when it has a 90 and an 80 review?

[RAMROD 109,259]

Just one thing, his music does not cater to pop listeners. So I am guessing lots will get weirded out when you try to check it out. Just listen with open mind.

But you may be familiar with at least one of his song, if you watched Harry Potter 7 part 1 before.

 

[littlepotter 75,076]

16 minutes ago, ANTI WP said:

Why your posts are always long ?? 

Never heard of him .

What's wrong with putting efforts into a ggd post? Thank you @StrawberryBlond for this post!

1 minute ago, RAMROD said:

Just one thing, his music does not cater to pop listeners. So I am guessing lots will get weirded out when you try to check it out. Just listen with open mind.

But you may be familiar with at least one of his song, if you watched Harry Potter 7 part 1 before.

 

OH MY GOD THIS IS LIKE... THE BEST THING TO COME FROM THE HARRY POTTER MOVIES. 

I will definitely be checking them out now.

[Guest WhiteHotForever]

The greatest collaboration of all time 

 

[ice bear 1]

i'm always interested in talent  what's his genre?

[AlexanderMagno 10,746]

But it’s not really 100 since there are reviewers who gave 90 or 80...

 

Anyway I really like his work, haven’t listened to the new album but I’ll do it very soon. 

“Into My Arms” is one of the most beautiful songs ever done and I still consider it the saddest song of all time.

[ANTI WP 19,825]

1 hour ago, littlepotter said:

What's wrong with putting efforts into a ggd post? Thank you @StrawberryBlond for this post!.

Well small quotes are always easy to read and understand about that content