Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Mute)
5/5
By: Jim Carroll
It has only taken him fifty years and fourteen Bad Seeds albums, but finally Nick Cave has got round to singing about Lazarus. The biblical story seems to nicely encapsulate many of the central themes that have characterized the Aussie crooner's work - namely death, religion and the macabre. And after dabbling with Hollywood script writing for the last few years, what better way for Cave to return to the day job than with a single referencing the most famous comeback kid of all time?
And what a comeback it is. This is not one of Cave and the Bad Seeds' caustic lullabies by any stretch of the imagination. Cave is at his most wry, and the Americophile in him comes to the fore as the Lazarus myth is transplanted to 1970s New York. Our peripatetic protagonist Larry blunders from East Coast to West and back (and from jezebel to jezebel); all the while cursing his unwanted resurrection. Larry's tragic fall is soundtracked by bluesy Hammond organs clashing with Cave sermonizing in fevered Dave Byrne fashion; as the Bad Seeds chant in incantation. All in all it's some of Cave's most overtly post-punk work since the Birthday Party; and while it may not be miracle, it's pretty darn good.
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