Artist: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Title:
Dig, Lazarus Dig!!!
Format: Single LP + 7" Single
Label: Mute
Catalogue
Number: STUMM277
Year of Release: 2008
Tracklisting
A1 Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! 4:11
A2 Today's Lesson 4:41
A3 Moonland 3:53
A4 Night Of The Lotus Eaters 4:53
A5 Albert Goes West 3:32
B1 We Call Upon The Author 5:11
B2 Hold On To Yourself 5:50
B3 Lie Down Here (& Be My Girl) 4:57
B4 Jesus Of The Moon 3:22
B5 Midnight Man 5:06
C More News From Nowhere 4:37
D More News From Nowhere 3:19
Firstly, lovely packaging job on this. The big light-box on the front of the sleeve comes across very well; putting the whole album out on vinyl by including a 7" single with More News From Nowhere is a nice touch (whilst not a new idea, it is particularly fitting for that track); then this booklet:
As I said - lovely.
So the album opens with a re-imagining of the Lazarus story, our hero transplanted to New York. The insistent bass, looped feel and organ stabs are reminiscent of the Grinderman album, but with the full band and lyrical freedom of a Bad Seeds record. It's seriously good, and one of Cave's best singles.
In an interview conducted at the time with Pitchfork (here), Nick opines that the opener (and naming the album after the opening track) might give people the wrong impression of the rest of the album. In a way he's right, but not, I think, the way he meant. Because what follows is a very patchy affair.
Track two Today's Lesson is a terrible rock pastiche, full of 'doo-doo' 'shoo-wop' and 'yeah-yeahs', with the female protagonist exclaiming how, "we're gonna have a real good time... tonight". Not if you're playing that track at my house you're not. Yet this is followed by the brooding and moody Moonland, all unusual percussion, slinky bass and menace (the delivery of the line "I'm not your favourite lover" being superb).
And the quality dives straight back down - with Night Of The Lotus Eaters. Like the tunes that failed for me on Grinderman, these are over-reliant on the loops (and for someone who used to DJ with locked grooves and drones, this is saying something). Nick talking over the top evokes the worst pretentious excesses of Jim Morrison, but without the raging ego. Albert Goes West doesn't improve things one bit, being a near-carbon-copy of the album opener minus the fun and sacrilege.
Then all the things that have caused problems on the A-side come together beautifully on the opener to the second side - We Call Upon The Author is just excellent, yet it has some of the pastiche-rock stylings, noise loops, and wordy lyrics touching many high and low-culture reference points. It's also a lot of fun and has rude words in it, which as we all know is big and clever.
The next three tracks are forgettable if inoffensive, but they are worth working through for the climax. Both Midnight Man and More News From Nowhere are great Bad Seeds numbers. From the guitar playing on Midnight Man you'd never know Blixa had left, the coda with the organ especially. More News you can hear yourself here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MajmI5j7Bs. I'm not sure the video has many merits, but the song certainly does, being a showcase for Cave's lyrical humour and imagination, and the Bad Seeds' stately way with a backing tune. One more quote to finish up:
Don't it make you feel so sad, don't the blood rush to your feet
To think that everything you do today, tomorrow is obsolete?
Technology and women and little children too
Don't it make you feel blue? Don't it make you feel blue?
For more news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
And don't it make you feel alone
Don't it make you wanna get right back home
More news from nowhere
More news from nowhere
