Grinderman 2

iTunes Review

Nick Cave has always had a wild side. The Birthday Party once provided him with plenty of electrical cover and the Bad Seeds occasionally broke out in fits of mania. As Grinderman, Cave’s Bad Seeds extend those fits and turn them into one massive wail. These are blues songs turned angrier, punk songs turned edgier, and folk songs gone awry. This is rock ‘n’ roll at its most extreme. The thick guitars and bouzouki on “Heathen Child” take the tribal beat and rampage through the jungle. “When My Baby Comes” shuffles in a disturbed jumble with Cave repeating his lines obsessively as the drone grows more intense and the backing shrieks take over. “What I Know” is the meditative breather before the deluge. “Evil!” crushes everything in its path with Cave as the sturdy and demanding commander. “Kitchenette” digs deeper into the Delta blues. “Palaces of Montezuma” comes as a soothing surprise. Cave glides over the rain-slicked road with a chorus that’s the nearest he’s come to pop in many full moons. “Bellringer Blues” adds wicked gravity to Cave’s desperate treadmill. The Deluxe Edition includes the bonus cut “Fire Boy” and remixes of the album’s single.