REVIEW: Grinderman

ARTIST: Grinderman
ALBUM: Grinderman
LABEL: Anti-

PLATTENSPIELER RATING: 6.4/10



Nick Cave is on a hot streak. No doubt about it. The antipodean King of Baritonal misery has been in rude health, not only producing a magnum opus in Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus, but writing one of last years finest films, the bloody, brutal outback revenge western, The Proposition. This is perhaps a little bit of a day off for him from keeping up this astonishing run of form. Grinderman is a bar band formed of Cave and a few friends, seemingly made to simultaneously evoke his days in Birthday Party and their dirty post punk and let him cut loose, deliver a host of good fun party songs in his own inimitable style.

It begins however with the angry, blustery 'Get It On', combining spoken intonations and thumped piano chords into a confrontational form of muscle blues. The guitars are crunchy and fuzzed beyond recognition and Cave barks the lyrics with a poetic howl akin to Swordfish-era Waits. '(I Don't Need You) To Set Me Free' is more conventional, recalling Cave's Bad Seeds in its ominous atomosphere and stabbed guitar. 'Death Charge Ethel' then brings in harmonies into its abrasive, thrashing Stooge-isms. As you settle into this mood of uncompromising blues rock, it becomes a fairly dull performance, combining Waits-lite spoken pieces with more garage dirt. The best moment comes on the evocative, simplistic emotion of 'Man on the Moon' where Cave opens up the heart in the way he used to on his finest records.

By no means The Boatman's Call, but no embarassment, this is a diversion into a heavier Cave but you feel, without his Bad Seeds to frame his tales, he seems a little at odds with the World.