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From the five star review in The Guardian:
“Anyone seeking a more prosaic description of Ghosteen’s contents might note that, sonically, it continues and extends the weightless, drifting style of its two predecessors. It’s not entirely clear how Bad Seeds drummer Thomas Wydler passed his time in the studio, given that this time around, there are virtually no rhythms – with the more punishing of Warren Ellis’s tape loops and electronics replaced by warm analogue synthesiser that gives proceedings a faintly proggy feel. Indeed, Ghosteen occasionally feels like an infinitely warmer, sweeter sibling of 2016’s Skeleton Tree. While that album forced its most beautiful melodies to pick their way gingerly through minefields of explosive noise and eerie, discordant soundscapes - or to submit to Cave singing them in an alarmingly parched, numb voice – here they’re bolstered by soft, pillowy harmonies and stately piano. Cave’s voice, meanwhile, sounds rich. At an age when singers tend to start losing some of their range, his appears to be getting wider: it’s hard to imagine the twentysomething who snarled and howled his way through Saint Huck or Your Funeral My Trial daring to attain the high notes he achieves on The Spinning Song.
The result is perhaps the most straightforwardly beautiful set of songs that Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have ever recorded, which fits with the album’s lyrical themes. When you listen to Ghosteen, the “children”/ “parents” description makes sense. Cave has talked about how his son’s death altered his work, how he found a way to “write beyond the trauma … to propel [myself] beyond the personal into a state of wonder”. And, despite the appearance of regular Cave themes – the first thing you hear is him invoking Vegas-era Elvis – Ghosteen appears to depict that process. For all the cinematic attractiveness of their arrangements and the title track’s opening meditation on the beauty of the world, the long songs on album two seem darker in tone, filled with sleepless nights, departures and desperate fantasies of escape: “I’m waiting for peace to come,” repeats one ambiguous line in Hollywood. The songs on album one, meanwhile, sound like the result of working through those emotions: lighter, calmer, concerned with empathy and faith.”
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Very much looking forward to listening to this!
Halfway through the album now, like it a lot!
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On Qobuz it’s in 48/24 Flac, and according to the roon signal path its MQA studio 352.8.
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Thanks Michael, interesting read indeed!
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That’s because the creator considers this the definitive version. Who am I to argue
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Just ahead of me Rene! Had to get used to the humming a bit at first, but like it 
I’m not trying to start another MQA discussion.
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Nope, we have had enough of them
