Born on September 22: Nick Cave, the Australian mystical poet awaits your conversion

The native of Warracknabeat in the state of Victoria (Australia) celebrates his 68th birthday today and is far from having said his last word.

The 18th album from the man in black with The Bad Seeds magnificently rehashes his eternal obsessions. The raw incandescence of the beginnings, however, has given way to (falsely) serene orchestrations, gaunt ballads in which it's risky to detect an ounce of carefree joy. On "Wild God," one of the rare love songs, "(O Wow Wow Wow How Wonderful She Is)," feels like a heartbreaking testament to a bygone relationship. The voice heard at the end of the song is that of Anita Lane, an Australian artist who passed away in April 2021 and who was briefly (but apparently intensely) Nick Cave's partner in the early 1980s. A relationship that had a lasting influence on the musical direction the Bad Seeds would take after emigrating from Australia to London. She therefore deserved this singular epitaph.

One thing is certain: the Australian isn't what you'd call a party animal. One of his first bands was indeed called The Birthday Party, at the dawn of the 80s, but there probably wasn't much laughter around the cake. It must be said that at that time, the five musicians weren't running on spring water alone.

Since it's extremely perilous to summarise a plethora of careers like Nick Cave's in a few lines, I invite you to play a little game instead. How many times does the artist use the word "Godsour" on his latest album? Then you'll be allowed to send a letter to the Nobel Prize for Literature jury in Stockholm asking them why Bob Dylan received the ultimate award and not Nick Cave. Or Leonard Cohen, for that matter...

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Nick Cave closing the TW Classic festival in Werchter (Belgium) in June 2022