Nick Cave may not see it this way, but his recent work seems to have been constructed as a reaction to The Boatmanโs Call, a beautiful, confessional record on which the writer failed to erect a protective screen between his emotions and the listener.
He only made that mistake once. Subsequent albums saw the re-mergence of Cave the storyteller, and the nagging sense that, sometimes, too much care had been taken. Then he and selected Bad Seeds coughed up Grinderman, a sonic hairball which abandoned preciousness in favour of growing old disgracefully. It felt like liberation.
The three exclamation marks in Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! are evidence that the spirit of Grinderman remains, but this is no lazy jam. Listen to the Bad Seeds on โHold On To Yourselfโ โ Bonanza twanging, shuffling rhythms, seagull squawks โ and itโs plain that their musical inventiveness is highly disciplined. The band has never sounded better, and Cave seems to have relaxed into the hysteria of his vocal style; like Elmer Gantry singing Leonard Cohen at a tent-revival.
What itโs about? The title track brilliantly repositions the myth of Lazarus in the moral swamp of 1970s New York; with the Bad Seeds coming on like the Stooges after a funk injection, while โMoonlandโ is a Taxi Driver narrative with a man behind the wheel in lonely rage. โAlbert Goes Westโ is a report of a psychotic episode which manages to rhyme โvulvaโ with โsucking a revolverโ. โWe Call Upon the Authorโ is Cave addressing God, and chiding those who ask him to explain his songs. โI go guruing down the street,โ he wails, โYoung people gather round my feet/Ask me things โ but I donโt know where to start.โ
Heโs lying, obviously. He could tell, but wonโt. And why should he, when his writing is as deft and playful as this? Sincerityโs not in it, and suddenly that seems like a good thing.
ALASTAIR McKAY
UNCUT Q&A: Nick Cave
UNCUT: How does this relate to the Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus album?
NICK CAVE: โThere was a similar process as to the last Bad Seeds record, but we tried to step away from the very cluttered sound. Perhaps cluttered is the wrong word, but this record has a very particular sound, very different from the Bad Seeds of the past. It feels to me very much like weโve moved ahead and gone somewhere else.โ
What effect has your Grinderman project had on the new Bad Seeds album?
Cave: โWell itโs the same people, so Grinderman is in there. Grinderman is sort of viral, and I guess the Bad Seeds have been contaminated somewhat, for better or worse. Not that this record sounds anything like Grinderman but itโs certainly a long way from the
broody ballad. And there is some of the sonic disarray that Grinderman were working at.โ
INTERVIEW: STEPHEN DALTON