Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds share live orchestral version of ‘Push the Sky Away’
The 2019 recording with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra appears on the forthcoming 'B-Sides & Rarities Part II'
By Joe Goggins
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have released a new, orchestrally-backed version of the title track from their 2013 album ‘Push the Sky Away’.
The live recording was captured in the band’s native Australia, at the Hamer Hall in Melbourne in 2019. Cave was performing alongside Warren Ellis for their ‘Film Music’ event, with the latter calling it “one of the best shows of my life”.
Part of the Melbourne International Film Festival, it saw the long-time collaborators backed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on a setlist dominated by Cave and Ellis’ myriad movie scores.
They found room, though, for this epic take on ‘Push the Sky Away’, which appears on their upcoming odds-and-ends compilation ‘B-Sides & Rarities Part II’, arriving on October 22 via BMG.
The 27-track set collects deep cuts from 2006 to 2020, with highlights including the first recordings of ‘Skeleton Tree’, ‘Girl In Amber’ and ‘Bright Horses’.
Cave has previously called the band’s first ‘B-Sides & Rarities’ collection his favourite of all the Bad Seeds’ output, saying “it’s the only one I’d listen to willingly. It seems more relaxed, even a bit nonsensical in places, but with some beautiful songs throughout.”
Cave and Ellis’ film scores include those for ‘Hell or High Water’, ‘Wind River’ and ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’.
The pair wrap up a lengthy UK tour in support of their 2020 album ‘Carnage’ in Cave’s adopted hometown of Brighton this Sunday (October 10).