Rating: NNNN
The prospect of turning 50 isn’t easy for Nick Cave to handle. Faced with the cold, hard fact that his best years in music may already be behind him, he’s decided he’s not yet ready to quietly plink his piano into the sunset. So the German members of the Bad Seeds have been given some time off to brood while Cave has grown a porn-star moustache and started kicking out the jams blues-rock-style as Grinderman. While some have interpreted all the bashing as an attempt to recapture the glory days of the Birthday Party, the new Grinderman recording seems to have more in common with the raunch ‘n’ roll of the Beasts of Bourbon. But once our boy Nick begins his bellicose bellowing, there’s no mistaking Grinderman’s amped-up scorch for anything but another of Cave’s darkly humorous creations of magnificent malevolence. Long may he howl and snort.