Heathen Children

Nick Cave is rapidly becoming one of my favorite all-time artists and his latest project, the second Grinderman album, rounds out my top five albums of the year. Joining Nick Cave again this time around are resident Bad Seeds Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos and Grinderman remains a sort of alter ego for the boys. Where Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have based a long and prolific career on creating dark songs about topics such as religion, love and death, Grinderman has become their light-hearted, sometimes scuzzy, often mysogenistic, always hard-rocking stress reliever.

Grinderman 2 is clearly more polished and produced than their debut album. While I still relish the first set’s raw and raucous energy and fuzzy edges I appreciate the growth and evolution we’re starting to witness and I sincerely hope this isn’t just a quick two-off side project to pass the time. The opening tandem of Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man and Worm Tamer is a perfect segue between albums as the former closely approximates the first set’s unpolished edge while the latter preserves its man-centric attitude. Will worm tamer become the theme song for feminists everywhere? (I’m doubtful, but Mr. Cave might beg to differ). You can tell straight off these guys are still having a great time doing this. Heathen Child is all kinds of fun, When My Baby Comes is a creepy slow builder, What I Know is a sparse meditation and calm before the storm, Evil! is balls to the wall and earns its exclamation point, Kitchenette is a bluesy romp with “Oprah Winfrey on a plasma screen,” Palaces of Montezuma is an absolute pleasure and one of my favorite songs of the year and Bellringer Blues rounds out the album with psychedelic satisfaction.

After taking such a shine to this album since its release in September, I decided it was time for me to take a trip back in time to 1984. I decided to go back and listen to the Nick Cave discography, starting with his first album From Her To Eternity (I know technically it all started with Birthday Party, but this is close enough for now) and so far I’m through 1994’s Let Love In. Not every album is a homerun, but not one of them is a failure either. Each has something to offer and each is clearly distinct from the previous one. It’s astonishing that this guy can maintain the same essential sound and style he’s always incorporated, yet still continue to evolve and gain relevancy even in today’s overwhelmingly bland and homogenized music culture. Here's hoping he never slows down.

It's a tall order to make it into my top four of the year. The next artist pulled it off. Read all about him tomorrow.