Release the ‘Frogs’! Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have just released an achingly and hauntingly beautiful track ‘Frogs’, an epic fringed by wailing guitars and an ominous tread. It is a gorgeous anthemic track, imposing and imperial with its circular weeping strings in the ether.
It represents the band at their ethereal best – there is almost an Ennio Morricone shimmer, a Burt Bacharach majesty, a cinematic sweep all bedded down by Martin Casey’s steady ambulant bass and a chorus of backing voices that makes it heavenly.
And, as is Cave’s wont, heavenly is an apt description. The first lines Cave penned for the album were powerfully evocative, referencing the first murder in the Bible, Cain’s slaying of Abel. He wrote:
Ushering in the week he knelt down and crushed his brother’s head in with a bone/It’s my great privilege to walk you home.
This striking couplet became the opening lines to the song, and set the tone for the imagery and themes that followed. Cave says:
The sheer exuberance of a song like ‘Frogs’, it just puts a big fucking smile on my face.
He’s not the only one.
‘Frogs’ is released into the wilderness today and can be downloaded and streamed here.
Cave says of the forthcoming album ‘Wild Gods’:
I hope the album has the effect on listeners that it’s had on me. It bursts out of the speaker, and I get swept up with it. It’s a complicated record, but it’s also deeply and joyously infectious. There is never a masterplan when we make a record. The records rather reflect back the emotional state of the writers and musicians who played them. Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we’re happy.
Cave and Warren Ellis, who released the interim album ‘Carnage’ in 2021, produced the new LP, with David Fridmann on mixing duties. Colin Greenwood—Radiohead bassist and sometime Cave touring bandmate—and guitarist Luis Almau are billed as additional performers on the LP.
‘Wild God’ will be released on 30 August 2024 on streaming, CD, and standard vinyl, along with grey and clear limited editions available to pre-order now here.
Track listing:
- Song of the Lake
- Wild God
- Frogs
- Joy
- Final Rescue Attempt
- Conversion
- Cinnamon Horses
- Long Dark Night
- O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)
- As the Waters Cover the Sea
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds recently announced their first headline tour of the UK and Europe since 2017, across 17 countries this Autumn, starting on 24 September in Germany with UK shows from 2 November. Due to huge demand for tickets, the band have since added second shows in Berlin, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Copenhagen, Dublin and London. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds are widely regarded as one of the greatest live acts in the world today, and these shows are some of the most hotly anticipated of 2024.
The Wild God Tour Dates: https://www.nickcave.com/tour-dates/
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds live line up:
Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, Jim Sclavunos, George Vjestica,
Larry Mullins, Carly Paradis
Feature Photograph: Megan Cullen
