Just a week ahead of the release of the latest album from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, they have unveiled the first track from the record. Skeleton Tree will be the sixteenth studio album from the outfit, and Jesus Alone is the first song to be heard from it.
A cinematic and haunting track, Jesus Alone captures something in-between the 1994 album Let Love In and the band’s most recent record Push The Sky Away. Looming instrumentation pulsates with near industrial bass and strings, while a keening in the background is reminiscent of a raptor bird in flight.
Cave’s vocals drop right down into almost spoken word, something like Do You Love Me, as he narrates sordid scenes. The more melodic build moves into the sort of territory he was covering in 2013 however; ambient and filmic but lighter and more poetic than the menace of his ’90s persona.
Released along with an accompanying visual, the clip for Jesus Alone is taken from the forthcoming feature film One More Time With Feeling. Directed by Andrew Dominik (Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly), the feature follows the writing and recording of the album, against the backdrop of Cave’s grief at the tragic death of his teenage son.
Check out the video for Jesus Alone below, a sparse black and white accounting of the recording of the track. Anyone who saw 20,000 Days On Earth will recognise the same intent and genius that emanates from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds as they perform.
One More Time With Feeling will premiere next week at the Venice Film Festival, and Skeleton Tree will be released the following day on September 9. The album will be available on CD and vinyl, as well as across digital platforms.
Image: Rolling Stone