The Deal: Old punk digs his way into mainstream retro flavored-rock.
The Good: Nick Cave’s got it covered from both ends. He’s the sound of the past, updated. On his new release, Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!!, Cave resurrects the spirit of Jim Morrison, sprinkling in liberal vocal doses of Lou Reed, David Bowie and Tonio K. For this project, Cave resurrected Lazarus, who he calls the “first documented zombie,” from the pages of the Bible and stuck him in New York City in the ’70s. Renaming his zombie, “Larry,” Cave has him stumbling all over the Apple ranting about mankind’s sorry state of affairs. Instead of being grateful to the almighty for waking him, this modern-day Lazarus questions the Big G’s methods in “We Call Upon The Author”: “Who is this great burdensome slavering dog thing that mediocres(sic) my every thought?/ It’s fucked up and he is a fucker/ I call upon the author to explain,” he bellows. Cave says he considers himself a comic writer, but not everyone gets the joke. But if you can’t find the yuks in the text, Cave makes up for it in the music, a slashing aural assault with unlikely vocal matchups sounding like Morrison channeling Billy Idol on “Lie Down Here and Be My Girl,” offering up a David Byrne-like psycho-killer babble on “We Call Upon The Author,” and mixing Lou Reed and Elvis on the gutter blues “More News From Nowhere.”
The Bad: Oi and hardcore fans need not bother. This punk is a rocker, and he can sing.
The Verdict: If you’re not a Cave fan, this thing should change your mind. It’s fascinating, addictive – and it rocks.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2008.
