Grinderman

Sorry that it has been so long since I have posted. I have been lazy to be honest. Well, I thought I'd come back with a review of a return of one of my idols, Nick Cave. For you people who haven't been keeping up with the times, Mr. Cave has stepped outside of the Bad Seeds collective to create a little side project that still has Bad Seeds members in it called Grinderman. Grinderman released their album rather recently, and I oh so dearly love it.

From the very beginning I have been anticipating this album. Cave and the boys have certainly come through. It is filled with everything I expected and wanted plus more. I wanted a return of that dirty, crazy, and just plain fucked up Nick Cave. He certainly made this return, but did it with maturity and with a step forward. This certainly does not sound like any Cave album I've heard before. It certainly has the elements of other albums. Yet, there are some very different elements to this album as well. For instance Cave takes a step back from his beloved piano and plays guitar. Warren Ellis took a big role on this album with his violin. It isn't your usual playing either. Ellis comes in with some really crazy bombastic noises at times. Listen to "No Pussy Blues" and you'll know what I mean. The song "Grinderman" sounds just like its title. The guitar sounds as if it is grinding up scrap-metal. The song that wins the album is "Go Tell The Women." This lyrics seem to reflect the ideas of Cave and his men at this time in their lives. All I can say is when the song pauses and Cave just sings "Hey Hey Heyyyy" my heart sours. It just hits that spot. The whole album seems to be a representation of a man in his 40s dealing with sexual frustration (wife can't always put out), disillusionment with society and culture, and so on. In the end, Cave seems to want to bed his wife so so much.

Grinderman is a primal primal album. Cave and the boys wanted to do a departure from their poetic realism and noir. They wanted to scrape those feelings at the bottom of the barrel, when you are just having one of those "Ah fuck all you!" kind of days and just want to go home release any tension you have. The thing is Cave expresses these feelings so well whether they are described bombastically or very elegantly. Grinderman will knock you back and make you laugh out loud while at the same time really move your soul.