Album Review
Grinderman – Grinderman 2
Nick Cave and company have returned with their second release under the Grinderman identity, which turns out to have as much off the cuff, dirt filled experimentation as their first offering. Despite the mostly heavy Grunge you’d expect, compared to Grinderman’s self-titled debut these songs are more neatly structured and it pays off. Other-worldly sounds like the introduction to ‘Heathen Child’, and twisted statements of “I give to you/The spinal cord of J.F.K./Wrapped in Marilyn Monroe’s negligee” can simultaneously bring out a morbid fascination and uncomfortably disturb the listener. The scene pictured on the cover is strangely unnerving in itself, a wolf baring its teeth in a cutting white marble bathroom. Perhaps it acts as a representation of the aggression and lust that runs throughout the album; for example the dubiously titled ‘Worm Tamer’, containing lines such as “You know they call my baby the Mambo Rider”.
Opening track ‘Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man’, after initially calm ebbing guitar, jumps into a stabbing drum beat and by the end is utter chaos. There are nods to the Rolling Stones’ ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ in the soothing “ooo”s and relaxed drums of ‘Palaces of Montezuma’, as well as closer ‘Bellringer Blues’ echoing the words “Soul Survivor”. The album does, however, have a dip in the middle where it loses its direction. After the gravity of songs earlier in the track listing, ‘What I Know’ and ‘Evil!’ seem to go nowhere, both finishing in a crescendo of rambling. I would’ve added ‘Kitchenette’ to the rambling category too, if it weren’t for the novelty of lyrics like “I stick my fingers in your biscuit jar/And crush all your Gingerbread Men”. Of course if a Grinderman album didn’t contain masses of not-so-subtle innuendo I’d be incredibly disappointed.
Grinderman offers an outlet for Nick Cave to improvise entirely and get in touch with his “lower self”, because “it’s okay to embarrass yourself, to go to places that could be potentially disastrous” on a Grinderman record. The last album was apparently a mid-life crisis and a half, so with the band parading around in music videos dressed as Roman centurions in their underpants, Christ knows what this one’s meant to be about. It’s only the second time Cave has picked up a guitar for a record, though the first came in 2007, so his shambolic blues-punk growl has certainly improved over the past three years or so.
To be honest this is forty-two minutes of music that, very much like the people who created it, will deliver a punch squarely to your face if you so much as look at it funny. ‘Grinderman 2’ is brimming with distorted, and at times plain wrong, fairytale fuckery. “Bat-faced girls”, “wolfmen”, “white steeds”, “abominable snowmen” and even Krishna, Allah and Buddha scream between each note and jump out of the record player (or whatever other weird digital thing you use to play your music).
He may only recently have turned fifty-three, but Nick Cave is by no means slowing down. He juggles being a musician, producer, songwriter, author and screenwriter yet can still produce albums as relevant as the days of The Birthday Party. Grinderman 2 is certainly another jewel in his crown.