What a beautiful, but haunting and tragic album. I've been listening to this a lot since it came out last week, and it's such a powerful album that it knocks me back and demands my complete attention every time that I listen to it.

It's Cave's first album since his son's death, and his willingness to open up and speak about how he is feeling is astonishing. He appears so raw on this album, it's hard not to feel disarmed when you listen to him sing. The stripped down music, and its strange electronic flourishes only emphasises his voice and makes it more powerful.

Songs such as Rings of Saturn, Distant Skies, and Skeleton Tree are some of the most beautiful songs I have heard in a very long time. A short (how could it not be, given its subject?), bleak (again, same question), and beautiful record. Even outside of its context - if it can be imagined that way - I believe it would still be one of the Bad Seeds albums. Though, of course, an album like this would not have been created if not for the circumstances.

[Edited 9/14/16 16:56pm]

I quite like it, it's a lot more beautiful sounding than i thought it would be, given the circumstances, and his usual style

i listened to this yesterday and it made me choke up a few times. it reminds me of a very,
very stark 'boatman's call'. but despite it being so sparse and stark it is still melodic and
surprisingly beautiful.

it's a great album in a year full of rather disappointing releases from others so far, except
bowie's blackstar and maxwell's summer.

I believe the songs were written before his son's passing, so I wonder how these songs would have been recorded without the tragedy. I'm also suprised I'm enjoying it as much as I do, since I didn't latch onto "Push the Sky", the previous album, and this feels like a continuance.

The timing of the vocal delivery and the sounds produced by the Bad Seeds (though mixed way, way down)...hearken back to the 80's albums. I find listening to the new album is invoking a little nostalgia.