“Who is this great burdensome slavering dog-thing that mediocres my every thought? I feel like a vacuum cleaner, a complete sucker, it's fucked up and he is a fucker, But what an enormous and encyclopaedic brain, I call upon the author to explain”
Anthony recently added a “pixels to polys recommends” section to the blog, good call. There’s some good stuff on there; Maddox is the man and that Dino*Run game has completely monopolized my spare time. Glad to see that Metacritic was also included, I want to be the first to say that Metacritic can be a decent place to stumble upon new music.
Most of the time my music searches through Metacritic come up empty handed, with me completely displeased that I wasted my time trying to listen to some ungodly-whiny-piece-of-shit-band that received accolades for sucking. Ok so I lied, Metacritic’s not usually a good place to find new music...
However, I month ago I downloaded Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds completely on a whim, Metacritic gave it an 87 so I said why not. Good call.
Unlike my last Obscure Gem, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! takes absolutely no time to fall in love with. Its rock music that’s both fresh and familiar: fresh in the sense that its different than what you’re accustomed to, familiar in the sense that its everything rock music should be; loud, dirty, intelligent, and dripping with sex (four things that Nickelback has sucked at being for years…I’ll save that for another rant).
The first question I had to ask myself when writing this post was what to consider these guys as. They’re definitely rock, but that’s a pretty broad description. Its like carelessly describing herpes as “something you exchange”, lack of details can get you into trouble… Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds somehow manage to wrap blues, punk, and funk in a sleazy garage rock package; sleazy enough that my herpes analogy above actually fits.
There’s something appealing about Cave’s vocals that’s reminiscent of a Vegas lounge singer; it’s smooth and crooning. If Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen, and James McMurtry could somehow impregnate a groupie after long drunken gangbang, their bastard child would be Nick Cave, and his band would rock.
Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is in many regards a concept album (something I get a hard on for); think Dark Side of the Moon, which revolved around themes and ideas, and not Tommy, which revolved around a unifying story. The album tosses around biblical accounts placed in a modern setting in way that I’ve yet to figure out: is it blasphemous or brilliant?…probably both. At the same time the album proves to be deceptively dark, you’ll likely catch yourself tapping your toes to some song about death and poverty, and think nothing about it.
Songs like the title track, Today’s Lesson, Albert Goes West, and We Call Upon the Author really shine, but again, the whole album is great. In the end, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is a must listen…period.
-Matt
Great post man, and I will def check this out... but the thought of Warren Zevon, Bruce Springsteen, and James McMurtry gangbanging a helpless groupie will haunt my dreams for the rest of eternity.
ReplyDeleteAll right...I have now had enought time to properly listen to Nick Cave.
ReplyDeleteI like the music, but I find his mustache more catching than the music. I think that this is because he is such a bastard child of the above mentioned artist. If I want something that sounds like James McMurtry...I listen to James. Same goes for the others.
I will say this though...they are doing what a lot of other bands won't do; make it to 14 Albums.
My final take, I will listen to Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! when it comes up on shuffle in iTunes. But I don't think I will be searching for it specificly.
... wait, because of the mustache?
ReplyDeleteI like the mustache (no homo), the mustache to me is better than the music.
ReplyDelete