Grinderman

iTunes Review

Anyone expecting Nick Cave to settle into middle age as the sensitive lounge crooner he sometimes pretends to be will be surprised to hear that he hasn’t lost any steps as a swampland blues howler. Cave, who has pioneered many a definitive sound riot with the Birthday Party and his band the Bad Seeds over the past three decades, is still interested in creating music from chaos and spent a week in 2006 with his inner circle – guitarist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn Casey and drummer Jim Sclavunos – assembling this raucous firestorm. Cave’s loudest moments have always been energized by their end-of-the-world doomscapes, his basso profundo vocals adding epic biblical heft to the maelstrom of untutored guitars and tribal rhythms that form a wall of sound always on the verge of collapse. The title track centers on a repetitive clanging tone that’s clearly meant to unnerve and features a guitar solo that offers no politeness or finesse. “Honey Bee (“Let’s Fly to Mars)” channels the mist-filled noir of a sordid crime scene. Yet, snuck inside this abrasive cauldron rests “Man in the Moon,” a tender ballad that offers a moment of respite before the onslaught returns at full force for “When My Love Comes Down.” Though separated by more than 20 years, Grinderman feels like the spiritual brethren to the punk-blues of Cave’s second Bad Seeds release The First Born is Dead.