Nell & The Flaming Lips

A 14 year old has recorded a set of Nick Cave covers with the Flaming Lips. It came about because, as a 10 year old girl, Nell Smith would stand in the front row at Lips shows, dressed as a parrot. Wayne Coyne once serenaded her with a Bowie classic. And a friendship developed, all through the conduit of Smith’s father. All above board. All as weird and wonderful as you might expect then, right? Where The Viaduct Looms is, unsurprisingly, Nell’s debut album. But, surprisingly, it is the result of this chance collaboration. Coyne telling her that if she wants to write songs she should check out Nick Cave. He’s a good writer you see.

I mean you just can’t make this up. And it’s a backstory that should sell albums/ahem – encourage multiple streams…

I go in and out with Cave, pardon any pun. But usually admire the writing. I go in and out with the Flaming Lips too – but only because their willful weirdness is just sometimes distracting. The end-results are usually good. Often great.

So here I am – digging Where The Viaduct Looms for many reasons. But most of all, it is about the insight of a teenager – dispassionately crooning songs that were inspired by the death of Cave’s teenage son (Girl In Amber) or going in super-deep on a tune that appeared in a Harry Potter flick (O Children).

Where Cave is at his most cloying – No More Shall We Part – Nell is absolutely charming. Where The Bad Seeds are almost not there – We Know Who You Are – The Flaming Lips are forever present.

This isn’t better. Just different.

But if you’ve tired of Cave’s voice, or pretension, you have a new in.

Sometimes elegiac (Weeping Song), sometimes so beautifully small (The Ship Song), sometimes nearly transmogrifying (Red Right Hand) and always just different enough (Into My Arms). These are wise selections – some of Cave’s very best work, in terms of human-connection songs – but they are totally new. That’s what a covers album should do. It should present favourites twisted to suit their new shape. You recognise the original, you understand the intention. You’re also surprised by the familiar bent to reflect new light.

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