Nick Cave | Warren Ellis — „Carnage“(Feb. 25, 2021) ✹ Živé vize apokalypsy a rozhřešení. Caveovo psaní a Ellisovy hutné zvuky tvoří spolehlivě silný obraz uzamčených časů konce a fantazie vykoupení. Dole pomocí tagu si najděte příbuzné téma: „Zápisník zřídka viděných fotek a skic sleduje transformaci Nicka Cavea z Aussieho teenagera v mezinárodního umělce.“ Albový hajlajt „White Elephant“ je jednou z Caveových explicitně politických skladeb. Ellis vytváří zádumčivé filmové napětí, když Cave čerpá z nyní již historických snímků protestů Black Lives Matter v roce 2020: „Protestující klečí na hrdle sochy / Socha říká:„ Nemůžu dýchat“/ Protestující říká: „abys věděl, jaké to je“ / A kopne ji do moře“. Roste nepříjemně škodlivá nálada, než se naděje vrátí s příslibem, že „nastal čas pro království na nebi“ a píseň kvete do některých bohatších oslavných zvuků, které byly naposledy slyšet na rozlehlém, goticko~bluesovém opusu The Bad Seeds z roku 2004 „Abattoir Blues / Lyra Orfeova“. Tento motiv „království na nebi“ se vrací v nebeských „Lavender Fields“. S postupujícím vyvrcholením, které by ani v soundtracku The Gladiator neznělo nevhodně, se Cave rozhodně valí na lepší místo. „Carnage“ je klenot v díle dua Cave & Ellis. Napínavé dílo, které vytváří milé místo mezi nevázanou introspekcí medávného díla Bad Seeds a zuřivým ohněm, zapáleným pod ‚Grindermanem‘ a The Birthday Party. Kreativní pruh, ve kterém dvojice jezdila v minulém desetiletí, nevykazuje žádné známky zpomalení. Opět připomínka, že Warren Ellis je držitelem šesti významných cen. Born: 22 Sept. 1957, Warracknabeal, Victoria, Australia Born W.E.: 14 Feb. 1965, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia Location: Brighton and Hove, England Genre: Electronic, Rock Style: Art Rock Album release: Feb. 25, 2021 Record Label: Goliath Enterprises Limited Duration: 40:09 Tracks:
1. Hand Of God 5:17
2. Old Time 5:16
3. Carnage 4:47
4. White Elephant 6:08
5. Albuquerque 3:57
6. Lavender Fields 4:34
7. Shattered Ground 5:35
8. Balcony Man 4:30 Personnel: •Nick Cave — vocals, piano, organ, harmonica, percussion, electric guitar, string arrangements •Warren Ellis — violin, fender mandocaster, loops, mandolin, tenor guitar, viola, bouzouki, accordion, flute, lute, piano, programming, percussion, string arrangements, vocals Review Alexis Petridis⌊Thu 25 Feb 2021 13.00 GMT⌋ Score: ★★★★ ✹ At 63, Nick Cave’s artistic standing only seems to be growing: the Bad Seeds somehow graduated to playing arenas on the back of 2016’s harrowing Skeleton Tree, their least commercial~sounding album in decades; its follow~up Ghosteen, an extraordinary examination of loss, grief and hope, was among the best~reviewed albums of 2019 ✹ Credited to Cave and chief musical foil Warren Ellis alone (the pandemic presumably preventing the reconvening of the Bad Seeds), Carnage is less grand than its predecessor — half an hour shorter, devoid of the lengthy epics that dominated its second half — but it follows Ghosteen’s lead musically. Frequently beat~free, it is based around Ellis’s electronics, loops and string arrangements. In its switches between songs with something like a standard verse~chorus structure and more abstract, serpentine material — songs that move, as the title track puts it, “like a raincloud that keeps circling overhead” — you hear the push and pull between the finely crafted structure of Cave’s writing and Ellis’s more freeform approach. But if Ghosteen was an album audibly born out of personal tragedy, Carnage feels more rooted in current events: “When everything is ordinary until it’s not,” as Cave sings on closer Balcony Man. ✹ As a writer, Cave has always given good apocalypse, and, perhaps understandably given the last 12 months, so it is here. Mysterious horned figures, a biblical sun and a trembling Earth lurk amid Old Times’ dive~bombing electronic noise, Suicide~ish synth bassline and Bo Diddley rhythm, while White Elephant offers a very 2020 take on lurid end~times fantasy: statues topple, their necks knelt on, the president calls in the army, violent insults are hurled (“if you ever think of coming around here, I’ll shoot you in the fucking face”), everything happens beneath “a great grey cloud of wrath”. Then it resolves into a beautiful, ragged chorus that carries a distinct hint of late~60s Rolling Stones and faint hope of absolution in its lyrics: “There is a kingdom in the sky,” Cave offers, a phrase that crops up more than once on the album, delivered with various degrees of conviction. ✹ At other points, Carnage’s view of 2020 is smaller in scale and more prosaic. There are a lot of lovely melodies on the album, but most straightforwardly beautiful song might be Albuquerque, a fabulous evocation of melancholy lockdown yearning that finds a solution in making the most of the human contact you’re permitted: “We won’t get to anywhere anytime this year, unless I dream you there … Unless you take me there.” ✹ If it doesn’t feel quite as remarkable as Ghosteen, that tells you more about the previous album than the quality of Carnage: Cave and Ellis’s musical approach is still vividly alive, the dense, constantly shifting sound complementing the richness of Cave’s writing now. At 63, an age when many artists have returned to their past in the hope of rekindling former glories or sparking nostalgia, he feels a very long way away from the figure in Boy on Fire or indeed the horror that fronted the Birthday Party and the early Bad Seeds, neither of whom, you suspect, would have had much truck with Carnage’s themes of love and redemption: a softer view of the world, it’s worth noting, that’s done nothing to blunt the potency of what he does. ✹ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/25/nick-cave-and-warren-ellis-carnage-review-vivid-visions-of-apocalypse-and-absolution ✹ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/22/nick-caves-stranger-than-kindness-inspiration-pictures-photos-notes-archive By KORY GROW Score: ★★★★: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/nick-cave-warren-ellis-carnage-review-1131824/ By Andrew Trendell ⌊25 Feb 2021⌋ Score: ★★★★★ ✹ https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/nick-cave-warren-ellis-carnage-review-2887522 REVIEWER: SEAN KERWICK ⌊25 Feb 2021⌋ Score: ★★★★½ ✹ https://diymag.com/2021/02/26/nick-cave-warren-ellis-carnage-album-review STORE: https://store.nickcave.com/
Nick Cave | Warren Ellis — „Carnage“ (Feb. 25, 2021)
✹ Živé vize apokalypsy a rozhřešení. Caveovo psaní a Ellisovy hutné zvuky tvoří spolehlivě silný obraz uzamčených časů konce a fantazie vykoupení. Dole pomocí tagu si najděte příbuzné téma: „Zápisník zřídka viděných fotek a skic sleduje transformaci Nicka Cavea z Aussieho teenagera v mezinárodního umělce.“ Albový hajlajt „White Elephant“ je jednou z Caveových explicitně politických skladeb. Ellis vytváří zádumčivé filmové napětí, když Cave čerpá z nyní již historických snímků protestů Black Lives Matter v roce 2020: „Protestující klečí na hrdle sochy / Socha říká:„ Nemůžu dýchat“/ Protestující říká: „abys věděl, jaké to je“ / A kopne ji do moře“. Roste nepříjemně škodlivá nálada, než se naděje vrátí s příslibem, že „nastal čas pro království na nebi“ a píseň kvete do některých bohatších oslavných zvuků, které byly naposledy slyšet na rozlehlém, goticko~bluesovém opusu The Bad Seeds z roku 2004 „Abattoir Blues / Lyra Orfeova“. Tento motiv „království na nebi“ se vrací v nebeských „Lavender Fields“. S postupujícím vyvrcholením, které by ani v soundtracku The Gladiator neznělo nevhodně, se Cave rozhodně valí na lepší místo. „Carnage“ je klenot v díle dua Cave & Ellis. Napínavé dílo, které vytváří milé místo mezi nevázanou introspekcí medávného díla Bad Seeds a zuřivým ohněm, zapáleným pod ‚Grindermanem‘ a The Birthday Party. Kreativní pruh, ve kterém dvojice jezdila v minulém desetiletí, nevykazuje žádné známky zpomalení. Opět připomínka, že Warren Ellis je držitelem šesti významných cen.
Born: 22 Sept. 1957, Warracknabeal, Victoria, Australia
Born W.E.: 14 Feb. 1965, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
Location: Brighton and Hove, England
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Art Rock
Album release: Feb. 25, 2021
Record Label: Goliath Enterprises Limited
Duration: 40:09
Tracks:
1. Hand Of God 5:17
2. Old Time 5:16
3. Carnage 4:47
4. White Elephant 6:08
5. Albuquerque 3:57
6. Lavender Fields 4:34
7. Shattered Ground 5:35
8. Balcony Man 4:30
Personnel:
• Nick Cave — vocals, piano, organ, harmonica, percussion, electric guitar, string arrangements
• Warren Ellis — violin, fender mandocaster, loops, mandolin, tenor guitar, viola, bouzouki, accordion, flute, lute, piano, programming, percussion, string arrangements, vocals Review
Alexis Petridis ⌊Thu 25 Feb 2021 13.00 GMT⌋ Score: ★★★★
✹ At 63, Nick Cave’s artistic standing only seems to be growing: the Bad Seeds somehow graduated to playing arenas on the back of 2016’s harrowing Skeleton Tree, their least commercial~sounding album in decades; its follow~up Ghosteen, an extraordinary examination of loss, grief and hope, was among the best~reviewed albums of 2019
✹ Credited to Cave and chief musical foil Warren Ellis alone (the pandemic presumably preventing the reconvening of the Bad Seeds), Carnage is less grand than its predecessor — half an hour shorter, devoid of the lengthy epics that dominated its second half — but it follows Ghosteen’s lead musically. Frequently beat~free, it is based around Ellis’s electronics, loops and string arrangements. In its switches between songs with something like a standard verse~chorus structure and more abstract, serpentine material — songs that move, as the title track puts it, “like a raincloud that keeps circling overhead” — you hear the push and pull between the finely crafted structure of Cave’s writing and Ellis’s more freeform approach. But if Ghosteen was an album audibly born out of personal tragedy, Carnage feels more rooted in current events: “When everything is ordinary until it’s not,” as Cave sings on closer Balcony Man.
✹ As a writer, Cave has always given good apocalypse, and, perhaps understandably given the last 12 months, so it is here. Mysterious horned figures, a biblical sun and a trembling Earth lurk amid Old Times’ dive~bombing electronic noise, Suicide~ish synth bassline and Bo Diddley rhythm, while White Elephant offers a very 2020 take on lurid end~times fantasy: statues topple, their necks knelt on, the president calls in the army, violent insults are hurled (“if you ever think of coming around here, I’ll shoot you in the fucking face”), everything happens beneath “a great grey cloud of wrath”. Then it resolves into a beautiful, ragged chorus that carries a distinct hint of late~60s Rolling Stones and faint hope of absolution in its lyrics: “There is a kingdom in the sky,” Cave offers, a phrase that crops up more than once on the album, delivered with various degrees of conviction.
✹ At other points, Carnage’s view of 2020 is smaller in scale and more prosaic. There are a lot of lovely melodies on the album, but most straightforwardly beautiful song might be Albuquerque, a fabulous evocation of melancholy lockdown yearning that finds a solution in making the most of the human contact you’re permitted: “We won’t get to anywhere anytime this year, unless I dream you there … Unless you take me there.”
✹ If it doesn’t feel quite as remarkable as Ghosteen, that tells you more about the previous album than the quality of Carnage: Cave and Ellis’s musical approach is still vividly alive, the dense, constantly shifting sound complementing the richness of Cave’s writing now. At 63, an age when many artists have returned to their past in the hope of rekindling former glories or sparking nostalgia, he feels a very long way away from the figure in Boy on Fire or indeed the horror that fronted the Birthday Party and the early Bad Seeds, neither of whom, you suspect, would have had much truck with Carnage’s themes of love and redemption: a softer view of the world, it’s worth noting, that’s done nothing to blunt the potency of what he does.
✹ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/feb/25/nick-cave-and-warren-ellis-carnage-review-vivid-visions-of-apocalypse-and-absolution
✹ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/mar/22/nick-caves-stranger-than-kindness-inspiration-pictures-photos-notes-archive
By KORY GROW Score: ★★★★: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/nick-cave-warren-ellis-carnage-review-1131824/
By Andrew Trendell ⌊25 Feb 2021⌋ Score: ★★★★★
✹ https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/nick-cave-warren-ellis-carnage-review-2887522
REVIEWER: SEAN KERWICK ⌊25 Feb 2021⌋ Score: ★★★★½
✹ https://diymag.com/2021/02/26/nick-cave-warren-ellis-carnage-album-review
STORE: https://store.nickcave.com/