Ghosteen

If you’re looking for something fun and upbeat ‘Ghosteen’ isn’t the album for you. It’s the sound of a father’s grief for his dead son. It’s harrowing and unbelievably sad, yet cathartic and…wonderful. Production is minimal and sparse, but immersive and as interesting as any ambient album going around. I suspect that over time and repeated exposure ‘Ghosteen’ will become one of my all-time faves.

Why are there so many Nick Cave albums on this list? This is nearly impossible to listen to.

Ouch. This is a heavy album. A beautiful album but really heavy. If you've ever lost someone, it will hurt to listen to. But it's beautiful, and compassionate, and lushly arranged. The 14 minutes of Ghosteen, and the painful wish of Ghosteen Speaks are the highlights, but really, the whole album is one big highlight. I won't listen to it often, it's too painful, but I will love it.

Wow. To call this music doesn't do it justice. To call it a work of art doesn't do it justice. The way that the album digs into the depths of grief is so powerful. It's heartbreaking, but in a way that elevates the experience to connect to a deeper humanity. Compared to some of his other work, this takes what's best and leaves what is "Nick Cave."

Brilliant, moving, heart-breaking at points, but also with an eye on recovery and the future. One of the most astounding and memorable pieces of music I have heard in a very long time.

What universe do I have to live in to think this was enjoyable to listen to!?

Achingly beautiful, raw in its emotions, the kind of record that stops you in its tracks and demands your attention. Such naked honesty is rare and Cave’s generosity in sharing the processing of his grief will, I sincerely believe, help others dealing with their own. That’s a pretty powerful accomplishment and elevates this album to a considerable work of art.

I previously listened to Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree in 2016 and it never quite left me. But the grief and heartbreak of that album was always too much for me to return to directly. So I have not since sometime in 2017. Nor have I listened to its follow up and trilogy-ending, double, 2019 album, Ghosteen. Well I’ve re-listened to Skeleton Tree once today. And visited with Ghosteen thrice. When driving around with it on at night, I was best able to experience this album. That is, Cave’s lyrics, emotional journey, and spiritual arcs as an artist and human being who is selflessly sharing his deepest heartbreak with any who will listen. There’s a lot to take in. And that it caps a decade when many other artists seemed to turn inward with equally emotional, heart-wrenchingly personal albums—Mount Eerie, Sufjan Stevens, Japanese Breakfast, and so on—a decade whose collective grief was buoyed by politics and “grand finale-ed” with 2020 and everything after…it makes Ghosteen seem especially potent. Nick Cave feels to me to be the elder statesman of this moment in music. If anyone can be. His trauma is particularly horrific, even, fateful. And his musical interpretation and communication of personal and personal-made-communal grief is lush, complex, and most often beautiful. Where many artists strip away flourishes and non-acoustic sounds for their most intimate albums, Cave seems to layer upwards. What he does strip away is words. Rather than filing his grief through doomed babbling like other searching artists might, he often lets soundscapes and ambience do the speaking for him. Or other musicians and/or singers all together. After all, how can the right words even be found, let alone without the help of others? I don’t know. It also just all seems silly to say anything about this album at all. It’s stunning.

Album won me over. Really enjoyed the style and weird poetry.

Having only listened to one other Nick Cave album (that being Henry's Dream), I wasn't sure what to expect here having heard it goes in a completely new direction. What I ended up finding was a haunting, yet beautiful record dealing with the subjects of life and death, and all that surrounds it. Not something to represent all of his previous work, but a great listen nonetheless. Favorites: "Spinning Song", "Sun Forest", "Ghosteen"

I just don’t get Nick Cave and I just don’t get why so many of his albums are on here. It’s nonsensical poetry that sounds like it was written by an angst 14 year old. This was such a chore and I’m glad it’s over.

A heartbreaking Five-star album from the legendary Nick Cave. And yet, I won't listen to it again anytime soon. I'll rarely put it on even if I want to hear Nick sing. Instant feels but the feels ain't good. This is not a record I enjoy but it's a record whose fragile beauty I recognize.

Poems with muzak

Not good, could not listen, who the hell thinks this is good music.

There were some very pretty moments here and there, but everything else felt like I was listening to an audiobook. I feel like this should've garnered a more emotional response from me, but it just didn't

Always been a big Nick Cave fan (mainly his lyrics). This was hardcore listening particuraly in light of its backstory. It stands up as a testament to grief, loss, love and making peace with trauma. Not something you'd want to listen to reguarly but an increadiblly powerful peice of art that like all great art takes you between darkness and light.

It's Absolutely Devastating. It seems wrong to try and pick a favourite track. I pray I never have to experience what Cave and his family did leading to the creation of this music. It sounds amazing though.

First time listen on this one, like Nick and the seeds generally but don't particularly like ambient music. But this is different, had never noticed the link between Cave and another hero of mine Leonard Cohen, but the connections are undeniable on this album. Beautiful songs throughout. Really Liked "Galleon Ship" and "Hollywood" as standout tracks. Amazing that this isn't all about the death of Nick's son Arthur. The songs are so darkly beautiful throughout, his usual collaborator Warren Ellis obviously influential in the Synth accompaniment.

Mesmerising.

This album was right up my melancholy street. If I didn’t know the story behind the album I still would have rated it high but it definitely adds something more knowing about his son. Everyone deals with grief in their own way and Nick Cave dealt with it by dropping this beauty

It's like if GY!BE tried to go mainstream. More vocals, and some piano. It tries to be so unbelievably melancholy at points it feels almost corny. With that being said though, it was still a great experience. Would recommend listening to while walking in the rain.

Really good album. Lots of awesome instrumentals and the vocals pair really perfectly to create a fantastical, ethereal experience. Love it.

Jesus. This album is perfect. That's first. And let's contextualize. This album comes from the depths of grief, beautiful and wretched, carving out painful recesses in the soul to then be filled with whatever healing may fill it back in. It's fucking gorgeous. I listened (for the first time, ever, mind you. Also, first Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, and Bad Seed album, lol.) while moving through a morning yoga flow. It's floating through space, or sensory deprivation but fir the auditory cortex and grief as a companion. Fucking beautiful. Harrowing. Healing.

A sparse, poetic and heartbreaking expression of a father's grief. One can only hope the act of making it helped bring some sort of peace to its creator. Rating: 5/5 Playlist track: Ghosteen Speaks Date listened: 27/12/23

I've heard this when it came out and it really is incredible. It' an extremely tough listen with the lyricals seemingly mostly motivated by the death of Nick Cave's kid. While the themes are somber and presented beautifully, the musical experimentation cave and warren ellis have going on here is some of their best. It's a challenging listen but extremely rewarding.

So here it is sports fans - my first 5 star rating for an album I’ve never heard of before. Admittedly not listened to much Nick Cave at all, but I love his work on The Proposition and his score for The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford is one of my favourite film scores of all time. I could hear bits of his work there in this album - maybe it’s the way he composes music, I dunno. Don’t know enough about music to pinpoint it so I’ll stop there with that bit of expert commentary. First track had me straight away and got me reading up on it. Listening to the rest of the album in the context of his life struck something in me. Apple Music said it’s an album about love, loss and letting go and I think that genuinely comes across. Stunning throughout. Very deep for the start of a New Year but why not? So there ya go - my “5 on a first listen.” Delighted this list got me to listen to this.

A beautiful, haunting album - you can hear everything that's been poured into it and it's heartbreaking.

🟦 100 🥇 Bright Horses 🥈 Waiting for you 🥉 Ghosteen

Ugh so fucking beautiful, I’m a Nick Cave stan now.

Beautiful. 5 stars

Oh, a newer Nick Cave album? I’m looking forward to checking this one out. It’s achingly beautiful- I did not know his son died in 2015 a d this is essentially a eulogy to him. So heartbreaking and amazing. Definitely going to get more spins…

Tough one to rank. I prefer Cave's rockers to his more somber work, but this is easily his best somber album. Haunting and beautiful.

Needs help

Redemptive, bleak and desolate. The minimal textures move gently behind tales of loss, grief and hope. Not necessarily an album of tracks rather than a journey through stages of mourning. Beautiful.

This album blew me away. It steps away from Nick Cave’s narrative heavy songwriting style in favor of something that is more focused on creating moods and exploring emotions and existential themes of love and loss. The music itself relies on drones and ambient synths supplemented by strings. This gives the music an ethereal feel and lends extra weight to the lyrics.

Nick Cave is the best songwriter in my opinion and so it's no surprise that I will say only positive things about his albums. 'Ghosteen' is another masterpiece but I understand the scepticism of people who have not much connection to Nick Cave's work. In the grand scheme of the discography of him and his band it's certainly something. Brooding, ambient, some say dark but on other parts quite uplifting. Abstract and challenging. Sometimes I miss more of the band because most of it was made by Nick & Warren Ellis alone. I still recommend everybody to listen to this though.

This is a beautiful yet heartbreaking album. It's simultaneously a joy to listen to because of the masterful performance, but a serious downer when you remember what Nick had to go through. It's amazing, it's just not something I can throw on whenever. That doesn't stop it from getting a 5'er.

This album took a full week to hit me. It’s so, so sad. You can just feel the grief and wonder and anguish in every song, but in particular songs it hits this crescendo, where you know he’s talking about his son. It’s like real grief: on waves between sorrow and anguish and peace and feeling. It took me a while but I started to feel really, really moved by this. I mean, the crescendo track, “Ghosteen,” it got me to cry, I actually rode with it. This album is not for everyone, nor is it for everytime, but you have to just marvel at its sheer intensity, it’s operatic quality, the storytelling that Nick Cave has perfected and is really special at a moment like this. Are there things I would change? Yes, it’s overly long, hard to grasp, the instrumentation is a little too saccharine, too dirge-like for too long. But tell me you’re not grabbed by Nick Cave’s performance, his lyrics. And yes I had to read the lyrics to really, really get it there. I’m so bad of a lyrics person, even Nick Cave needed some translation for my brain. But yeah... I mean, god damn. Probably only listening to this again in the most tender of moments, but you have to respect it. 5/5, if this was staged I would watch the hell out of it and probably weep.

Heavy, haunting, heartbreaking. It's one thing just to listen to it but even more heartbreaking to understand the background around this record. It's a very beautiful and unique album, but I don't know if I wish to listen to it again for a while. Favourite: Hollywood

Nick Cave wrote this album after losing his son. It’s beautiful and haunting. I’m glad I happened upon it. Absolutely stunning.

I really liked this for some reason. I thought it was hauntingly mellow for the most part. Another one where it's on track 4 for the second time before I realise it's looped already and I'm listening to the same thing I've already heard. Yeah, really flows well this one.

Always brilliant

One of the problems with this generator is that sometimes you get an album with a vibe that just isn't aligned with your day. I was having a pretty good day. Read a book. Made some soup. Things were great. Then I listened to this. Devastating. This album came out a few years after Cave's 15 year old son tragically died. He's clearly grappling with some things here, this is heavy. It's also a gorgeous album. It's mostly ambient music in the background, with his deep vocals over top. I think he typically is more of a narrative-based lyricist, but this one is very abstract and poetic. It's more or less one long poem set to ambient music. And he's like 60 years old when this came out, he sounds good still. This is only my second Nick Cave album; way back on album #30 I got Henry's Dream, which is very different than this. I didn't really like that one very much, but this is basically a different artist altogether. The album is a bit long (68 minute double album) and the songs do bleed into one another a bit, but maybe that's the point? This is up there with Beck's Sea Change on the list of "albums that I hope I don't feel like I have to listen to very often because they're so sad". I've said it before, but good music should make you feel something though, and this made me feel something. Time to try to get that mood back up. Favorite song: Waiting for You Other: Spinning Song, Bright Horses, Sun Forest, Galleon Ship, Ghosteen Speaks, Ghosteen, Hollywood 1/14/25

A legitimately beautiful, but profoundly sad record.

Well, that was absolutely dreadful, and I have no idea as to why “Ghosteen” is even on this list… I’ve seen comments along the lines of “great lyrics” and “subtle instrumentation changes throughout are awesome” and I’m like WTF are they talking about??? I get that this is an authentic album, and was born out of grief – but that alone doesn’t make it awesome… To be honest, it sounded like one long, drawn-out funeral dirge – which is fine if you like that sort of thing… Also saw that this was rated as one of the best albums of 2019, and I’ll stick with my premise that it’s NOT because this was a great album, but because there is a real lack of musical “greatness” today – especially the authentic kind, as compared to what was being produced in the 70’s… Normally, I highlight some of the best songs on the album, but nothing to show for this one… The ONLY song that I bothered to look at title throughout the album, was the last song – “Hollywood”… Not sure if there was a little more in that one, as compared to all of the rest, or after about an hour, I had been completely worn down – but ether way, even that track is nothing to write home about… This was incredibly rough, but I’ll give it a 1, as at least if was authentic…

An album to fall into. It just oozes feeling and vibes (albeit, usually melancholy). Absolutely loved it.

This is #day163 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and... it feels so strange to listen to this album on Spotify. Back in December 2019, I received a vinyl copy of this record on St. Nicholas Day. It came in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve with a glossy finish—a 2-LP set housed in printed polyline inner sleeves with lyrics. It’s a splendid edition that only adds to an already astounding album. I truly believe Ghosteen is The Bad Seeds' best record. Even though it was largely created by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis alone. Still, it’s my personal favorite, and I can’t listen to any other album in their catalog with the same repeated awe and trepidation. Wait, no—Skeleton Tree, the predecessor from 2016, also comes very close. But Ghosteen is something else entirely. A masterclass in Nick Cave's somber approach to grief. Listening to this album feels like staring into an artist’s heart, cut wide open, with no possibility of turning away. It’s poignant, gut-wrenching, yet beautiful. I can’t find the right words to fully express what this album means to me. Six years on, it still gives me goosebumps. This is a 5 out of 5, without a doubt. P.S. Here's to another potential controversial artist, as I gave Abbatoir Blues a 3 some months ago. But let’s face it, The Bad Seeds are no strangers to controversy. Looking forward to #day164.

Beautifully atmospheric and well-crafted in all aspects. Love it!

After listening to 250 albums, I decided to write a comment for the first time to express my regret that there is no rating higher than 5...

A masterpiece. Simply beautiful. Was lucky enough to see Nick Cave live a couple of months back and it was astonishing. Bright Horses was breathtaking. Warren Ellis is a star.

Really just a gorgeous record all around. I think understanding the context of what was going on with Nick when he wrote this record is essential to fully appreciating it, but even without that context it’s still just a beautiful sounding album. 9/10

It’s a perfect album. Lyrically heartbreaking and sonically sumptuous.

Oh my f God was this a great album. This is the second NCatBS album I've listened to since I started and I'm all on board. I will probably buy this one and it will be in my official at work rotation. I need to listen to it again. I was cleaning while listening and going through so many emotions. Like I said in my other review Nick Cave is someone I've known of for years but had mixed up for some reason with several other different artist none of whom sound anything like this band. I hope I have another 40 years of life left to get to enjoy and celebrate their catalogue and this album in particular. Just as solid as his 80s and 90s.

I am ~100 albums into this weird odyssey. This is the first time I am writing anything. This album just moved me. The backstory is so tragic. Son dies. Devastated father tries to make sense of a child's passing. I felt compelled to write because I know some will play this without context and may miss the brilliance. It's atmosphere and depth. Hollywood could possibly be the most amazing song I have heard in my older years. It's Stairway to Heaven mixed with Dylan's stream of consciousness with pure Nick Cave brittleness. BTW, I was so into it, I listened to Carnage and Australian Carnage (live version of many of these songs). Anyway, I get it if it's not for you. But if you are even slightly intrigued, give it a second listen.

Ethereal masterpiece, first time listening to Nick Cave and wasn’t disappointed a single bit

As that other (admirable) review puts it: "I don’t know. It also just all seems silly to say anything about this album at all. It’s stunning." I will only add a few things. There's a misconception that this album as a whole is Nick talking to his deceased teenage son. Cut "Ghosteen Speaks" is about that, sure, and the tragic story of Arthur Cave's death is central to the overall narrative of this indeed stunning record. Yet I believe that what most of those songs are really about is Nick slowly and gently trying to have Susie Bick, his wife and Arthur's mother, return to the world of the living, while passing through all the stages of grief himself. Not that this misconception changes a lot of things. Listening to *Ghosteen* is a harrowing experience, but also a strikingly beautiful one. And if you listen to it the right way, it's also a record filled with faith and hope. Extremely sad, obviously, but also mystical. You feel like you're staying silent next to the characters depicted in those songs while they muse about their past and current lives in front of the sea, a grey overcast sky looming over them as the twilight takes hold. Rarely in the history of music in the last fifty years or so has a so-called "one-note" album offered so many memorable moments like that. The record, which uses minimal input from the Bad Seeds apart from Warren Ellis, also contains two of Nick Cave's most beautiful songs ("Bright Horses" and "Waiting For You"). Which, given his huge body of work, is no small feat. "Galleon Ship" and "Ghosteen Speaks" recycle Ellis's trademark circular loop sound -- already used in "Jesus Alone" on previous LP *Skeleton Tree* -- to great effects. Wordless background vocals abound, mostly performed by an angelic choir. And Cave is a commanding presence just as he takes us into a fascinating maze of melancholic impressions. The "second part" of the album containing the two long narrative songs "Ghosteen" and "Hollywood", linked by the short meditative interlude "Fireflies", is a whole cinematic adventure all by itself. "Ghosteen" starts with Cave using all his powers to see hope on the horizon through an early climactic build-up, before a lengthy, more muted and subdued sequence ensues, showing how fragile hope still is in his predicament. And "Hollywood" cryptically narrates the story of Cave and Bick trying to escape from their unbearable pain on the other side of the world, with Cave recognizing that it's gonna be the place where he's waiting for his time to come as well -- reminding the listener that death will always be around the corner for each one of us, and that it's up to us to make the best out of the time that's left. That closer is in turn ominous and soothing, displaying the sort of obsessive one-note bassline that already sounded so great in that other masterpiece that *Push The Sky Away" was. An ambiguous finale, adding to the whole mystical mystery of the album, where Cave eventually goes full falsetto to convey his most intimate thoughts. Who would have thought the eighties Prince of Darkness was able to convey so much grace? I tried my best here, yet it still feels "silly to say anything about this album at all". It's the sort of record that can't allow you to do anything else while you listen to it. It works in relentless waves, and you either fully yield to them or you don't. Hope there's enough strength and empathy in you to do so Number of albums left to review: 57 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 408 (including this one) Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 234 Albums from the list I won't include in mine: 302

This album is heartbreaking. I hope I never have to listen to it in the same place he is. This is probably the heaviest album I've gotten on the list. Masterpiece.

Soaring and haunting. His best.

Great art made from awful circumstances. At times so open it's a difficult listen. Not much more it feels even appropriate to say, but joins Black Star and other albums where the context is inescapable.

I wasn't looking forward to listening to this album and I found the last offering of a double album by Nick terribly painful. This was the exact opposite. Sweet sublimation. Well done Sir.

Brilliant, moving, heart-breaking at points, but also with an eye on recovery and the future. One of the most astounding and memorable pieces of music I have heard in a very long time. 5 Stars

Between the 200 albums from Nick Cave, this is the only one I liked and think should be in the book

Pretty heavy, I like it but I feel like I need to live a full life with more heartbreak and loss and then I’ll see this as the masterpiece it is

Excellent album, some top tier writing by a great lyricist, Nick Cave. Not easy listening, its an album tinged with meloncholy and grief, but also hope.

Damn starting with "Spinning Song" what a song the vibe with the synth is crazy and I almost cried like I had tears in my eyes, what a masterpiece. Those songs with the synth give me some sad Stranger Things vibes. Really weird but powerful and deep. That "Sun Forest" intro was amazing I really enjoyed it and that touched me a lot. The rest of the song is also sooo wonderful like the voices which accompany are insane, for me the best song of the album. That album was clearly a masterpiece, you could really feel the backstory behind this album and that feeling lasted during the entire album, that's a masterpiece a huge 4 but more of a 4,5.

this was a really interesting album. i really enjoyed it though i'm not sure i'd ever listen to it again. it never really felt like it was overstaying its welcome which i expected to happen given the runtime.

Really enjoyed this, a bit unexpectedly. Had heard of Nick Cave but never listened, was very chill and ethereal, good soundtrack to building furniture!

It’s impossible for me to be objective/unbiased when it comes to Nick Cave because he’s easily in my top 10 artists of all time and I’ve been a bit obsessed with him for many many years. It’s also impossible for me to separate this from its context (the tragic death of his 15-year-old son) and therefore it’s an album I very rarely play as it’s totally devastating. It’s almost more spoken word in parts too, but hauntingly beautiful. Sparse, stark, slow, spiritual and so so sad. I put on its successor (last year’s Wild God) straight after in order to kind of progress the story, move on to a sliver of healing and joy again, as Nick has begun to do.

Beautiful. Listening to it in the background I was enjoying the baritone, stripped back Nationals-esque vibes. When I properly sat down and focussed in on the lyrics and the composition, I felt truly moved. Even more so once I'd read the story behind the album.

Amazing. Very sad.

Well I guess after enough Nick Cave albums I finally like him!

Nick Cave is a brilliant songwriter, and his partnership with Warren Ellis has created several captivating albums. This one shouldn’t work as well as it does, the first album written after the death of Cave’s song, dealing with mortality, grief, and loss. While it’s slow and meditative, the music is still dynamic and grabs your attention. It doesn’t hit the 5 star mark, because it is a deliberate listen, but definitely worthwhile to revisit.

Beautiful and moving. Try not to cry.

Un album concept où la musique s'estompe (sans totalement s'effacer) au profit du propos. Bellement exécuté.

Where with Skeleton Tree you were still listening to Nick Cave's pain, Ghosteen is listening to his grief. It's oh so beautiful, but not an album I personally enjoy putting on.

Haunting and evocative - in fact pretty damn good

Beautiful warm voice sent me right to sleep. I downloaded to my sleep list of albums.

Raw and revealing, it almost makes you feel like you shouldn’t be listening to it. Beautiful.

I liked this world better when I didn't realize that Nick Cave and Nick Drake were two different people

Know what you're getting when you push play. This is not a rock and roll album. It's a spoken word meditation on death over somewhat ambient piano that goes on for a good long time. If you really want to dig into sadness, read the lyrics. If you want something relatively quiet to work to in the background, it's fine. But it ain't Red Right Hand if that's what you're looking for.

So apparently this album was made after the death of the singer's son. Ghost + teen = ghosteen? weak pun not a fan The music has a gloomy but hopeful vibe that's quite pleasing. I'll do another listen concentrating on the lyrics. Alright I did another listen and it goes indeed quite deep. Yeah what Cave went through truly is terrible. I was going to say I wasn't that moved by the album. But nobody cares how it made me in particular feel or how relatable it was for me. Cave felt the need to make music after his son's death, a process which may or may not have healed him in some way, but that's not important. He made art - From and for his own feelings. From and for a moving event he went through. From and for his loved ones. That's one of the most beautiful things one can do. I'm now going to rate the album quite low. It is based on how the music sounded and how much I enjoyed listening to it, not on how much emotional weight it has.

This album is beautiful, but doesn’t really appeal to me. It’s the perfect example of music as art vs music as entertainment. It’s beautiful and haunting, well don’t technically, I just have little to no desire to listen to it.

Pretty spacey

Eh...its fine. This one felt strange to listen to just on a Tuesday morning given its subject matter and all. This album likely does not benefit from this format of listening to the music daily.

I liked the instrumentals on this album a lot. It was all very grand, slow, and epic sounding. I still don't really like his voice, which keeps me from actually enjoying it. The songs did feel very samey, it felt at likes like I was listening to one long continuous song. It felt a little sigur-ros-y at times, but then Nick's voice came over it and kind of ruined the vibes. 5/10, I likely wouldn't ever put this on again.

Quite tired of ambient bad seeds. Miss the filth. Worst album cover of their career. That aside, still quite great, feel the heartache. P.S. Good lord this list needs some diversity. @me

It's now almost a rite of passage to mock the fact that Elvis Costello has a bizarrely out-weighted representation on this 1001 list. But at Costello's worst he's at least palatable. ...and so here I was when I initially wrote about how there are (at least!) 4 Nick Cave albums. FOUR - and how at some point you've gotta read the room - I get it, absolutely give us 1 since everyone should hear (almost) everything/everyone once, and if you insist on a 2nd fine but you have to know half the audience is gonna nope right out. Even my favourite artist I'm gonna push 2 on you tops and after that you're on your own to discover more of them. I wrote all this and more (including questions about the album cover) without having yet listened ... ..annnnnd then great: I then read that he wrote this about and for his son who died. So who's the asshole now. Sigh. So. I listened. Here's the amazing and fun thing - it is and was nothing at all like I'd expected (i.e. nothing like the previous 3 of his I've had). The music is actually undeniably ...lovely?? Soaring, sad, dramatic. Almost hints of Brian Eno. His voice is ...emotional and tentative? Sensitive? Of course too often he reminded me of Leonard Cohen whose vocals I can't abide by. But there is definite distinction - this is definitely better in that I feel more emotion (although I'm likely reverse engineering this knowing what I do about his inspiration for the record). In the end maybe a different singer but definitely with the vocals backed off a little in the mix and I could have bumped this to a 4. Still I never expected to give Nick Cave a 3 and will tip my hat to him for a surprising, different, and emotional ambient project. I guess that's the point of this damn thing (I've only said that at least 10 times). TL;DR: Shockingly and unexpectedly different. 7/10 3 stars

I didn’t really care for the storytelling/talking singing in this album. The parts that are actually sung are an improvement and, while I did like some of the instrumentals, they overall just felt the same between songs.

You can hear the emotion, Nick has been through some shit. Musically I like this more than the many other albums of his that have appeared so far. But, honestly, I can't helping thinking that the thing that ruins Nick Cave's music for me is Nick Cave. At least his voice. It's like my brain just instantly disengages the second it rumbles onto the track.

Would say that he's "my kind of weirdo", but he's actually a very different type of weirdo that I don't like so much. Didn't hate it though.

Nick Cave is a SERIOUS artist.

I'm sure if you're high this is a spiritual experience.

Never listened to Nick Cave before. Have heard his name here and there. This was my first time listening. It's okay.. but Scott Walker did it better. I did some research and found that Nick Cave was heavily inspired by Scott Walker and I 100% believe it.

Who hurt this dude

What is this nonsense? Started on a bad foot with the self-written Spotify description describing the band as "one of the world's most exciting, influential, innovative, and compelling bands." Get out of here with that pretentiousness. This is garbage. Vocals are creepy with empty ambient music backing them. Just write poetry instead. Turned off after 3 songs. 1.5/10 (0.75/5)

I was very torn rating this album. I wanted to find something to like here and to see why this album made the list. At times there were some rumblings of something interesting happening that made me think upon further listens I might find something to like here. Unfortunately I am only listening to each of these albums once and giving my initial gut reaction for rating them and I could not find it in me to rate this anything higher than a one. The album drones on in a very monotonous way throughout the duration of its run time with fleeting glimpses during the albums climax at what could have been had they decided to try anything different. I can appreciate that it is wholly different from anything I’d ever seek out to listen to and that there may be something appealing about it to someone but that someone is not me. Entirely boring, utterly forgettable.

Is this a rock album or a game of Dungeons & Dragons? Nah.

vibey but not enjoyable. Fitting for a spa waiting room.

It's hard to give this less than 5 due to just how well it does what it is trying to do and the epic nature of the soundtrack to the poetry and all the powerful emotion. I'd probably give it 4.5 if I could give half stars, though.

Ghosteen is the sixteenth album from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Ghosteen is a far from the work the band recorded earlier in its career; the sound is defined by the ambient electronic support and the near-complete lack of percussion elements. The double album is a concept album; the songs are an exploration of the grief experiences by Cave after the accidental death of his son. Ghosteen met with universal critical acclaim, and was regarded as among the best albums released in 2019. While perhaps too early to tell, some regard Ghosteen as the best release of Cave's extensive career. These are haunting, beautiful songs from a parent surviving the worst of losses.