Nick Cave’s new album Ghosteen has been praised as a ‘devastating’ account on dealing with his son’s death.
Arthur Cave was only 15 when he died four years ago and this would mark the singer’s first completely written piece of work since the family tragedy.
Critics have been describing Ghosteen as one of Nick’s best releases, and it may be due to the sheer amount of grief the Australian musician deals with on the album.
Grayson Currin, a reviewer for Pitchfork, said: ‘[I was] devastated by its despair and lifted higher by its humanity.
‘Nick Cave emerges with one of his most powerful albums yet, an endlessly giving and complex meditation on mortality and our collective grief.’
His late son Arthur passed away when he fell from a 60ft seaside cliff in England after taking the psychedelic drug LSD.
Arthur was said to be ‘completely disorientated’ when he fell off a cliff into the Ovingdean Gap near Brighton on 14 July 2015.
In the moments before his death, he was spotted by motorists who jumped out of their cars as he ‘zig-zagged’ along the cliff top before climbing over a safety fence and falling over.
Arthur was taken to Royal Sussex County hospital but died later in the evening.
His father, 58, who found fame for his work with the Bad Seeds, attended the inquest with wife Susie Bick – but left the room when the graphic details of his son’s severe injuries were discussed.
The pain and grief Nick and his wife had to endure were clearly depicted in the album.
The New York Times’ Jon Pareles commented on Nick’s exploration on different stages of grief.
He said: ‘Cave isn’t trapped in his sorrow or consumed by it; he has figured out how to live past it, to seek solace after desolation.’
Similar to the other critics, The AV Club’s Marty Garner believed the record was Nick’s ‘most accessible album since 1997’.
He wrote: ‘Ghosteen’s simplest lyrics often have the most devastating impact.’
Nick and Susie married in 1999 and welcome Arthur and his twin brother Earl in 2000.
Earl, who is now 19, starred in Channel 4 mini-series Born To Kill and Netflix’s The End of the F**king World.
Nick Cave’s Ghosteen is out now.
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