KEY POINTS:
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
(Mute)
Herald Rating: 5/5
Verdict: You should dig this early contender for album of the year
Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! is an album for everyone - a rare thing indeed when it comes to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The title track is like something the Ministry of Works boys would sing on their smoko. And this wee thigh-slapping belter of a track, along with other similarly great tunes like the fuzzy Albert Goes West and all-in singalong of Lie Down Here, makes the Bad Seeds' 14th album a rollicking good time.
The beautiful intensity and ambitious nature of 2004's excellent double album, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, was one for hardcore Cave fans and the occasional passerby brave enough to tackle it; last year's hilarious and venomous side project Grinderman wasn't for the faint-hearted.
So while Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! chugs and grinds like Grinderman does, there's less seething and it's a more relaxed and casual record. And while Abattoir/Orpheus was epic, Lazarus is simply 11 catchy songs. There's even something infectious about the menace that filters through the static agitating soundscape of Night Of The Lotus Eaters and there's a sexy tension to the beautiful ballad Moonland.
Cave's trademark imagery and themes are still here: there's sex, lust, literature and women. One of the best lines being "she rubs a lamp between her thighs and hopes the genie comes out, singing" on Hold Onto Yourself. And of course there's the beautiful, rambling stories. For instance, Cave's Lazarus is lurking round New York City rather than Bethany as he did in the Bible and in We Call Upon the Author Cave's mate Doug taps on the window and, what do you know, he's brought him a book of Holocaust poetry.
In the same song the singer goes on to proclaim Charles Bukowski "a jerk", ahead of the masterful line "Berryman was best, he wrote like papier mache, but he went the Hemingway ..." which proves Cave is also at his lyrical best too.
And only he can get away with the line "we're going to have a real cool time ... tonight" on the loping Today's Lesson and sound cool.
Cave is 50 now and he's having more fun dishing out his devilish wit and wisdom than ever before.
