Nick Cave is in full mid-life-crisis mode. As his hair starts to thin on top, he grows it longer in the back and adds a retro mustache. As most musicians his age begin to slowly fade away out of the music world, Cave is churning out arguably the greatest material in his career. As many of his peers are beginning to do less, he is doing more–he, along with three of the Bad Seeds, created a side project called Grinderman whose 2007 self-titled debut was vicious, vulgar, and primitive. It experimented with unusual tones and drones on the guitar and featured Cave’s first recording playing that instrument. Cave and the Seeds took what they learned from Grinderman and created Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!, a record which might not be as magnificent as his previous studio album, the sprawling double-disc masterpiece, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus, but it’s just as much of a testimony to this group’s genius as that record was.
Abattoir/Lyre was a big, grand worship/gospel record with a gospel choir on many of the songs. Lazarus intentionally goes the other direction musically, seeking the subtle and the moody, while incorporating some of the tones and drones of Grinderman. As a result, on the first listen, many of these tracks might not stand out much, but there are truly some impressive cuts on this record. The title track opens things up with a swaggering rock song about the man raised from the dead by Jesus in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John. Cave imagines Lazarus, who goes by “Larry,” coming to modern-day America and experiencing the good and much of the bad here. This song also reveals Cave’s focus on America with this record. “Moonland” is driven along by rapid conga beats and the song reaches a fitting climax with Cave’s whispered lyrics. “Night of the Lotus Eaters” sounds like a Grinderman left-over as it makes use of some repeating guitar drones–its a nice, overt connection to the Grinderman album. There are a couple of good rockers in “Albert Goes West” and “We Call Upon the Author,” but some of the real magic of this record is in its conclusion. “Hold On To Yourself” is a creepy, unsettling song with its spiderlike strings and haunting guitar lines, Cave’s vocal delivery is perfect here. “Jesus of the Moon” is a slower ballad reminiscent of Cave’s beautiful album No More Shall We Part. “Mightnight Man” features a organ that could be from tons of late 60s American rock songs, and it picks the pace back up leading in to the closer, “More News From Nowhere,” which features the same sort of swinging, swaggering beat as the opener and functions as a perfect bookend.
Cave is still obsessed with religion, still haunted by Christ, still dropping literary references in his songs (see “We Call Upon the Author”), and still creating some of the best music around today. Lazarus doesn’t match the grandeur of Abattoir/Lyre, but it doesn’t matter because it isn’t trying to. It feel tighter, more subdued, and more focused than Cave’s recent work–making it at first to appear simple and naked. But that isn’t necessarily the case, Lazarus is rich in texture, lyrically hefty, and a pure joy to listen to–easily among Cave’s finest moments. This just proves that Cave can do almost anything better than his contemporaries, he can even make mid-life-crises look cool.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!
Anti-, 2008
Rating: 4.5/5.0
