NICK Cave’s latest album has been described as a “search for solace” as the singer comes to terms with the death of his son.

Arthur Cave was 15 when he fell from a cliff at Ovingdean in 2015 after taking LSD. He later died from his injuries.

Brighton-based Nick Cave’s new album, Ghosteen, is the first to be written since the tragedy and has been praised by reviewers.

His previous album, Skeleton Tree, was released after Arthur’s death but was largely written before the accident.

The New York Times described Ghosteen as a “search for solace” while Rolling Stone said it was a “stunning reaction to losing his son”.

Writing for music website Stereogum, reviewer Ryan Leas said: “Cave and his band have returned with Ghosteen, a sprawling double-album document of grief and despair and life continuing on, of grasping for some kind of relief, hope, or healing.”

Grayson Haver Currin, writing for music review website Pitchfork, said the album was one of Nick Cave’s most powerful yet, “an endlessly giving and complex meditation on mortality and our collective grief”.

He said: “He sorts through his grief and all the requisite stages, occasionally as though in real time. His mood drifts between domesticity and depravity.

“He latches on to friendship and love in any shape they take. He loses his faith, then fights desperately for any belief that can replace it.”

Music magazine NME’s writer Elizabeth Aubrey said fans of Cave’s music have seen him engage with his audience “more directly and openly than ever before”.

In the last year he has launched a website, The Red Hand Files, which is named after his song, Red Right Hand, performed with his band The Bad Seeds.

On the site a message to readers says “you can ask me anything” and Cave has responded to a range of questions from “when can we expect a new album?” to “do you have any regrets as you get older?”.

His most recent post, the 65th time he has responded to reader question, comforted an anonymous 16-year-old girl who said she “cannot see anything positive in my body”.

In a long message Cave spoke about his own image as an adolescent and said: “Please, take care of yourself. Seek out beautiful things, inspirations, connections and validating friends.

“Perhaps you could keep a journal and write stuff down. The written word can put to rest many imagined demons.

“Identify things that concern you in the world and make incremental efforts to remedy them.

“At all costs, try to cultivate a sense of humour.

“See things through that courageous heart of yours. Be merciful to yourself. Be kind to yourself. Be kind.”

Elizabeth Aubrey said this candid conversation he had developed with his listeners could be heard in his latest offering.

She said: “The bleakness and cracks in Cave’s voice – there’s a comparison to be made to Johnny Cash’s ‘Hurt’ era – left little to the imagination as to just how much the loss had shaped its delivery, grief always feeling palpable.

“If Skeleton Tree gave a glimpse into grief in its immediate aftermath, Ghosteen is a grief considered.”