One day we will hopefully witness Nick Cave prowling around a concert venue while singing “White Elephant,” the menacing, attention-grabbing centerpiece of his surprise new album Carnage. The same Cave who has so naturally assumed the vantage point of murderers and outcasts now delivers an apocalyptic word association poem, seemingly inspired by George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” and last year’s protests around the death of George Floyd; the result feels unsettled, confrontational, and antagonistic. Over Warren Ellis’ icy, lurching accompaniment, he sings, “I’ll shoot you in the fucking face,” in the closest thing this song has to a chorus.

That is, until the mood shifts. The duo suddenly introduces a psychedelic church choir over the sunniest and downright grooviest piece of music that Cave and Ellis have delivered since 2008’s Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!. This unexpected moment kickstarts the tender, second half of a record that, up to this point, has felt like a nightmare sequence from David Lynch’s Lost Highway. “There’s a kingdom in the sky,” Cave sings. “We’re all coming home.” You can practically see the light filling the room and hear the audience singing along. These extremes have always existed within Cave’s work. “White Elephant” binds them together in their rawest, most outrageous forms.