Ghosteen

Written after the tragic and traumatic death of Nick Cave's 15 year old son Arthur, Ghosteen is an emotional journey recounting a Father's attempt to reconcile the loss of a much loved child. It's at times haunting, ethereal and raw, and is worth anyone's time to listen to.

My first listen of this left me a little confused. Sure, Nick Cave’s lyrical genius is there but where are the bad seeds?Half a dozen listens later I came to the realisations that (a) the album needs more than one listen before you get it, (b) it really needs to be listened to start to finish and (c) it’s the most jaw-dropping beautiful, eloquent and sublime body of work the man has produced to date.Buy it without hesitation but be prepared to give it some time to grow on you.

I liked the fact that there are animals on the cover. This made it pleasant to look at. The disc inside is a nice round shape which fits perfectly on most record players I’d imagine. There is a little hole in the middle that the spiky bit goes through and I found that this prevented me from knocking it off the spinning plate. It is black and shiny like Nick Cave’s hair.When you spin the disc around and make the scratchy pin go on to it a sound is produced and it turns out that this is the sound of Nick Cave and his friend Warren. This is funny because the picture of the animals says Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds but actually it’s just Nick and Warren. The other Bad Seeds I think have gone to hide because the music made them sad. Or they are just being very quiet.If you like horses then this record is for you because Nick sings a lot about them here. It’s good to get insight into a song man’s head and here we can learn that Nick likes horses. This is not something I knew. He used to like heroin (a drug) but now it is horses.The sound of the music that you hear when Nick is doing words is sad but it’s futuristic too. In a way that is old fashioned. It mostly reminded me of the film blade runner which is about robots and Indiana Jones in the future.The first disc is followed by another disc which is in a different bit of the cover. This disc functions in much the same way as the first one. The thing that is different is that this one only has three songs. It was a good idea to put these ones on a different disc because if you are the kind of person who is put out of his wits by long songs you won’t want this disc to be there. Or if you are on a day when you can’t do long songs because you don’t have time for that. With this album it is easy to pretend they are not there and you can forget about them.They are good songs too but if all of the songs in this world were made to be this long we wouldn’t have time to listen to as many songs.It would also take a long time to sing happy birthday to someone.

Shame the download code is for MP3 and not at the very least CD quality flac.

I have to admit this album took a long time to grow on me, probably because it's much longer and slower than I'm used to. I now love it - it's atmospheric, mellow, ethereal and haunting.

Brilliant album. Inadvertently got my sister liking this one. Remind me of God Is In The House. I'm a big fan so might be a biased opinion. That's a Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds fan. Not to keen on his soundtrack stuff.

A while back - before this album came out - I had begun to think that it was impossible for Nick Cave to release something that I wouldn't like. However, a first couple of listens to Ghosteen challenged this assumption. I was initially dismayed that the songs seemed to be so samey, so undifferentiated. But then, a little further on, slowly and incrementally, the soundscape of this very distinctive and brave recording began to make sense, and I have now reached a point where I think the whole thing is perfect. I honestly can't fault a single, mesmerising moment of it, either musically or lyrically. Even when those lyrics descend into cliche and apparent banality, it's a move that seems deliberate and appropriate to this listener. Additionally, the apparent allusion to mystical Johannine theology (the Farewell Discourse?) in 'Ghosteen Speaks', and the appeal to the story of Kisa Gotami from the Pali Canon in 'Hollywood'are especially poignant, though I do wonder if this is Cave's first flirtation with Buddhism, as the song 'Babe, I'm on Fire' from Nocturama seems to me to be an eloquent illustration of the Second Noble Truth from the Buddha's Deer Park Sermon. But anyway, having said all this, if you are one of those fans of Cave that prefer a more abrasive style of music making and remain unimpressed, I do sympathise. Nevertheless, for me personally, it doesn't get much better than this 70 minutes of ambient blues.

I met and talked to Nick Cave when he fronted The Birthday Party during 1981 never thinking that he'd become a serious poet and writer with his next outfit Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. I've read King Ink and his collection of lyrics. Base, demotic, simple, struggling seeable through words playing with themselves. His album The Boatman's Call is just wonderful. His words move about, there are the calls to God and the relationship to something not just the material. Cave is wise because he see's there's no convincing either way though evidence stacks up against all religions. His once Brazil resident heroin addiction is now over thankfully. This is a calm reflective work with words and their uplifting or pulling down of music. I'm reminded of his Kylie Minogue duet -that was fine too. I thank Nick Cave and co for this inspirational album. Made in USA, UK and Germany the double CD comes with a lyric sheet. May he find the peace he needs at the coda to the work. I say, as a Christian, 'peace be with you'. Cave also mentions Jesus.

Bom.

Buen disco, me vino en buen estado y no tuve problema alguno. Lo recomiendo mucho.

Grande conferma..

Comme toujours Nick Cave crée entièrement à sa guise. On écoute sa musique sans attente et en bénéficie pleinement.Livraison parfait. Merci.

What can be said about Nick Cave? It seems you can never get the full idea of his genius because he always finds new ways to surprise and astound you. This Album, "Ghosteen." speaks a thousand words at once, coming from so many different angles. But if I can choose one word to describe it. That word would be "Astonishing."