Published on May 9, 2009
Nick Cave isn’t the first artist you track down in your collection when you’re in the best of moods. His low, growly croon, combined with the intense atmosphere the Bad Seeds lay forth, has resulted in some of the darkest music in rock, particularly the brutal Murder Ballads. There is a reason he and PJ Harvey hit it off, at least for a brief period.
Fans who never wanted Nick Cave to sell out but were curious as to what an album would sound like if A. his band rocked out and B. Cave used his wicked sense of humor in his lyrical writing no doubt rejoiced last year with the release of Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! Along with his sense of humor, Cave tapped into another near-limitless resource for storytelling: The Bible, specifically, the story of Lazarus. Regardless of your religious affiliation, you have to admit the book has plenty of stories to draw in obsessive authors, storytellers and musicians.
Almost all of the songs on Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! are memorable on the first listen. There’s no complex formula for the album’s pull on a listener, however. First off, the band creates some of the tightest, catchiest riffs this side of The New Pornographers. Thank Warren Ellis, who incorporates mandolin, piano and violin, creating a lush soundscape. The catchy, appealing beats pave the way for Cave’s rapid-fire lyrics, which are in top form. Take the lead-off title track: “He feasted on their lovely bodies like a lunatic / And wrapped himself up in their soft yellow hair…But Larry grew increasingly neurotic and obscene / I mean, he never asked to be raised up from the tomb.”
Like Bob Dylan or more recently, Jarvis Cocker, Cave has the ability to turn a song into a novella with a beginning, middle and end. With Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, two prime examples are “We Call Upon The Author” and the closer “More News From Nowhere.” The former is a hilarious, swirling story of death and damnation. U2 at this point in their careers probably couldn’t make a lyrical refrain like “Rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infections disease, global inequality / And deepening socio-economic divisions” go down easy on the ears, but that is a testament to how on top of their game The Bad Seeds are on this album. Then later, “More News From Nowhere,” like Dylan’s “Highlands,” is a rambling, drug-fueled odyssey of failed relationships and a person’s growing irrelevance in the world.
Fans of the more intense, downbeat side of The Bad Seeds will gravitate toward the brooding “Night Of The Lotus Eater” and “Midnight Man,” the latter being perhaps the only song on the album that takes a few listens to appreciate. Otherwise, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, while not the sunniest album of 2008, is a sprawling rock album that begs to be cranked on your stereo.
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