Grinderman 2

The debut album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' guitar-centered side project felt like a bit of midlife-crisis blowing off of steam. Written and recorded as the singer-songwriter was approaching his 50th birthday--a milestone not many of us thought he'd reach a quarter-century before--Grinderman returned to the black-humored sex and violence obsessions of Cave's days as the frontman of Melbourne post-punks The Birthday Party. So it makes sense that the far superior Grinderman 2 feels more like a throwback to the early Bad Seeds albums, where Cave's dark obsessions were leavened with more sophisticated and stylistically varied musical settings. These nine songs are still considerably rougher-edged than anything on the Bad Seeds' "real" recent albums, with feedback, drones and bluesy chord progressions predominating, but Cave and his cohorts (fellow Bad Seeds Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos) make room this time for gentler sounds as well. In fact, the incantatory psychedelia of "Palaces of Montezuma," with its shuffle beat and surprisingly sweet backing harmonies, is downright pretty! Other highlights include the throbbing "Worm Tamer," which features backwards guitar squeals and deadpan lyrics like "Well, my baby calls me the Loch Ness Monster/Two great big humps and then I'm gone," and the tongue in cheek Velvet Underground tribute "When My Baby Comes," which culminates in a giant wah-wah freakout that sounds like some early Can albums were lying around the studio. Grinderman 2 is less overtly light-hearted than its predecessor, but it retains its casual, spontaneous charm.