Two albums have been put under the microscope by our critics, those of two legends who have been with us for a long time: Nick Cave and Laurie Anderson; let’s turn up the volume!
“Wild God” de Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The album is available from August 30, 2024.
Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Thomas Wydler, Martyn Casey, Jim Sclavunos and George Vjestica are back on stage with Wild Godtheir eighteenth album composed of around ten songs. Adored by Anglo-Saxon critics, this album presents itself as a return to optimism and light after their last two albums with ethereal atmospheres and mystical lyrics.
But then, where are we with this new album?
Critics’ opinion:
- Christopher Conte was seduced: “It’s a broad, grandiose, spectacular album, perhaps more so than the previous ones.” The critic recalls that in recent years, Nick Cave has gone through many tragedies including the loss of his son and his mother, however, this latest album is imbued with a certain joy: “Nick Cave is often associated with something tragic, but here there is almost a humorous side, I find this record quite joyful.”
- Sophie Rosemont joins Christophe Conte, “It’s extremely bright, there’s also a piece called ‘Joy’.” So what are we talking about? “ce grand manitou” you rock? “He talks to us about lakes, forests, the melodies are very solid“Here she particularly felt the“collective adventure, Nick Cave is like a shamanic priest at the head of a horde.”
“Amelia” by Laurie Anderson
The album is available from August 30, 2024.
Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned and daring creative pioneers. Her work encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film and even photography. For over forty years now, the artist has reinvented herself in order to continue to constantly challenge and captivate her audience.
This fall, she returns to the artistic scene with a tribute album to the first female aviator to have crossed the Atlantic solo, Amelia Earhart, in a record that bears her name: Amelia.
Critics’ opinion:
- Christopher Conte found the musical form of the disc astonishing: “The tracks are very short at the beginning, they follow one another, it’s really an anti-platform listening record because you can’t listen to it out of order”He was amused by the response to his flagship title. O Superman (1982) on some of the album’s tracks, but regrets “that this record doesn’t squeak enough, it’s sometimes too conventional”.
- Sophie Rosemont praises the merits of this album: “The work on the strings is exceptional” and note that the album is “very well documented”. In fact, he returns to the figure of Amelia Earhart, and in particular her last flight: “This album plays with dissonance, it’s like a film, it has a very cinematic aspect”. She found it upsetting: “The further we get into the album, the more we feel that the drama is going to happen.”
Christophe Conte’s favorite : the Fontaines DC group which offers with ROMANCE a disk “offensive, it’s one of the rare groups to be really exciting.” A writing group “musical and poetic, above a lot of things happening in the rock landscape, and which has things to say.”
Sound clips and references:
- Excerpt from the song Wild Godtaken from the eponymous album by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
- Excerpt from the song The Word for woman here, taken from Laurie Anderson’s album Amelia
- Morceau Romance from Fontaines DC
- The documentary The Thousand and One Musical Lives of Fleetwood Maca documentary directed by Sophie Rosemont, is available on Arte.
