Fans have been waiting for a new album from The Bad Seeds – the band around Nick Cave – for four years. Now the wait will soon be over. Because according to Cave, he and the group are actively working on the follow-up to the 2019 record “Ghosteen”.
Cave announced this in a Facebook post on Wednesday (November 8th). Immediately after completing his solo tour in North America, the artist wrote that he was now “heading to Buffalo to mix the new Bad Seeds album”. In his post he also thanked the fans for their participation at the past gigs. “As sober and disturbing as the songs were at times, it was a great personal privilege to play them for you and share this very special experience. Let no part of them be forgotten! Thank you,” said the Australian musician.
Updates on the new record
Nick Cave has already commented on the process of the new work in the past. In October 2022, he confirmed in a question and answer session on stage at London’s Southbank Center that he would soon begin the writing process. In fact, two months later – at nine o’clock on New Year’s morning 2023 to be exact – he started writing some text ideas, which he gradually shared with his blog’s community. So he wrote via “The Red Hand Files”: “It is now January 6th. Almost a week has passed and I’ve written a few things but they’re not very good, or maybe they are, it’s hard to say,” Cave said.
And in July 2023 he also gave an update on the process of creating the record: “My plan for this year is to release an album with The Bad Seeds. That’s good and bad news. The good news is: who doesn’t want a record by The Bad Seeds? The bad news is that I still have to write the damn thing,” the 65-year-old said in the post.
New track: “To Be Found”
Apparently Cave is doing quite well with it. On September 29th he played the unreleased ballad “To Be Found” at his concert in Chicago. On his blog he wrote about the track: “The feeling is simple and softly spoken, the song can’t even say its name, but still it is a special song, full of indefinite emotional impact and a great pleasure to play. “I think I’ll call the song “To Be Found,” says the musician.
The sound of the album
What the album will sound like – apart from the teased track – is not yet known. However, the songwriter revealed to the music magazine “NME” that his band’s new projects will take a different direction: “We can no longer do an old-school Bad Seeds album where a rock band simply plays. […] The new record won’t sound at all ambient, but I don’t see us just going back to rock’n’roll. I just don’t know how to do it anymore.” A release date has not been made official yet.