It has been four years since Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds made the magnificent double album Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus to quickly follow up the ultimate disappointment of the Nocturama album. After No More Shall We Part, a collection of beautifully crafted and performed songs showcasing Cave’s sensitive and passionate side, the enigmatic singer and his ever versatile band attempted to get back to their roots with mixed results. A couple of sparse and low key soundtracks and the questionable Grinderman project make you wonder what a new Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds would sound like. From a man who always sounds distinctive but also changes things frequently, and after hearing the in-your-face stomp of the title track and first single, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! could be a complete mess of sounds and ideas fuelled by too many changes to the formula. Far from it.The album opens with the title track; always a bad idea but Cave always starts with a punch. The song differs from the single version and includes extra lines in the verses to fill some awkward empty spaces. It works much better. Starting with the chorus (again Cave is never conventional) and launching into the story of what would have happened if Lazarus (affectionately Larry) had been given a new life only to abuse it and run dramatically off the rails. The interplay between guitar and trademark organ is incredible and adds a perfect uneasy backing.
Today’s Lesson continues with similar controlled attitude, Cave obviously enjoying himself while the Seeds pump out a wealth of musical expertise. The song recounts some of Cave’s favourite themes: sex and religion. There is real energy in his voice, as if he means every word: ‘Down the back of Janie’s jeans she had the jawbone of an ass. Mr. Sandman he runs around the corner trying to head her off at the pass…’. As Cave takes a breath, things slow done in the middle to give some much needed breathing space. If anything the second half gets more frantic. At three minutes any normal song would finish but the story isn’t finished yet. A brief tuneless organ solo and Cave is back for a rousing finish.
Moonland starts with the line: ‘When I came up out of the meat locker, the city was gone’. Nothing like grabbing people’s attention. Cave is in post-apocalyptic mood, slow this time and with menacing purpose. It sounds like vintage Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds with a new edge - a snarling blues funk driving the venomous vocals. ‘It must be nice to leave no trace…but somebody needs you and that somebody is me, babe…’. This is the way to make a love song. Perversely it seems to fade early before the story is told.
Night Of The Lotus Eaters is even more sparse and creepy. Again the Seeds provide an amazing atmospheric soundtrack as Cave croons like a madman. A great example of the man’s poetry and musings set to music. In contrast Albert Goes West is a complete up tempo pop song, complete with cheesy backing vocals. It sounds a big too formulaic and most of the lyrics are weak and obvious, in the end resorting to meaningless sha-la-las instead of saying nothing and letting the music finish up.
An album highlight in many ways is We Call Upon The Author. Another example of excellent song writing within a perfect shape. Cave gives himself room to ramble incessantly almost without breath or respite: ‘There is a predatory conspiracy against the likes of you and me in this idiot constituency of the moon. Well he knew exactly who to blame…’. The song is peppered with strange industrial interludes which do little to ease the uneasy mood of the zealot-preacher rant. As the song unfolds, it’s clear that irony is taking hold. Cave throws the world’s problems at us in kitchen sink style: ’Rampant discrimination, mass poverty, third world debt, infectious disease, global inequality and deepening socio-economic divisions…’. Why make an album about the world’s problems when you can sum it up in one line? At least in shows that Cave is not that out of touch with reality even if has no answers. He is not afraid to tackle controversial subjects either, declaring that his friend Doug has a book of holocaust poetry (complete with pictures). After another interlude, we discover that the answer to all this is ‘a pair of scissors’. Sheer Brilliance.
Hold On To Yourself is the big sprawling ballad, lifted from the No More Shall We Part days without the piano instead replaced by guitar and organ. It’s becoming a running theme to fill the backing with a more complete arrangement and not just rely upon one sound. There is a persistent background noise underpinning the whole song that is unnerving. The result is outstandingly effective. Cave’s vocals are haunting and tearful: ‘Ah babe I’m a thousand miles away, and I just don’t know what to say coz Jesus only loves a man who bruises. But darling we can clearly see, it’s a life of fire an lunacy and excuses and excuses and excuses…’.
Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl) continues the high standard. It’s like Albert Goes West only this time it works - the backing vocals adding much more and the wonderful Cave piano shining through. Jesus And The Moon is the album’s ‘other’ slow song with Cave musing about love and longing. The pan pipes are a nice touch. Midnight Man approaches the same subject from a different angle, faster with the Seeds in tremendous form again. Cave is very Dylan-esque: ‘It’s early in the morning and I don’t know what to do. It’s early in the morning and I can’t believe it’s true. It’s early in the morning and it’s happening again. Well, I called you once, I called you twice, Ain’t I your midnight man?’. It’s a shame that such a strong vocal performance it compromised by weak lyrics. The end of the song breaks the mould and throws in Grinderman squealing feedback…
Probably the most surprising song on the album is the eight minute long More News From Nowhere. In the same way that Nocturama finished in such impressive style with a huge epic, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! chooses a subtly different approach. The effect, however, is the same - a massive song full of ideas both lyrically and musically. Instead of full-on rock blues, the sound is slow and dreamy as Cave recalls a psychedelic experience: ’I turn another corner, I go down a corridor and I see this guy; he must be about a hundred foot tall and he only has one eye. He asks me for my autograph; I write nobody and then I wrap myself up in my woolly coat and blind him with my pen. Coz someone must have stuck something in my drink - everything getting strange looking; half the people have turned into squealing pigs, the other half are cooking…’. Again it’s mad and utterly brilliant as Cave goes on to say ’It’s strange in here. And It gets stranger every year’. Given all that’s come before, this is a real gem.
Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is another great Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds album. Luckily the Grinderman project has not had a destructive effect, instead inspiring everyone involved. The title track used as a single to promote the album is strangely deceptive and does little to sum up the rest of the album.
For the first time in a very long time Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds sound like a complete entity, without diminishing the role of Cave as preacher, poet and statesmen. He is sounding stronger and more determined than ever. It is a fusion of ideas from the last three albums with renewed cohesion. Not to say that Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus was not the sound of a band at work. That album is much more sculpted, each song pieced together meticulously. Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! feels much more flowing and spontaneous. The use of female backing vocals to contrast Cave’s baritone used on Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus is sorely missing. A compliment in a way, as you can always have too much of a good thing and why repeat ideas?
At 50, Nick Cave is striving onward unabated, writing songs as reflective, as funny, and as great as ever. Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! feels like an anthology record, pulling in styles and sounds from the past and still making a modern sounding record. All this while not taking itself too seriously. With Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in this sort of mood, they are unbeatable.
-- CS
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