"Frogs" jumps right in. From the song's opening moments, the latest single from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds explodes with a stately groove full of booming brass and thrilling pitch bends that swoop dizzily up and down, with the singer in full-on preacher mode while howling about someone who "crushed his brother's head in."
After this euphoric opening, the song somehow, impossibly, gets even grander: there's an ascending orchestra, a heavenly choir, and Cave snarling, "Kill me in the Sunday rain," as thunderous drum fills punctuate the song's final passage. It's sublime stuff, tapping into the melancholy majesty that made 2013's Push the Sky Away so stunning.
Cave's next album, Wild God, is out August 30.