Grinderman 'Grinderman'

Album Review

Released  March 2007

Review By Andrew Bennett

Grinderman consist of Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunous. A new group formed by core members of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. The reason for the new name is the aesthetic behind the record; a raw quickly recorded and partly improvised album. This sense of urgency and experimentation and sheer freedom screams from every note of this record. Yes, there are nods to The Birthday Party, but early reports that this is solely a pedal to the metal affair from start to finish are strongly exaggerated. There are certainly many moments of light and shade.

The initial excitement is to hear these guys truly cut loose though. Storming single ‘No Pussy Blues’ is on the surface a tale of not being able to get laid but also alludes to male feeling of inadequacy and rejection and the often overlooked quest for the older male to be desired. Hell, “I read her Elliott, read her Yates, I tried my best to stay up late, I fixed the hinges on her gate, but still she just… Never wanted to”, could well be Joe’s defence plea for killing Pauline Fowler. The sagging of flesh and the inevitable onslaught of age and fading masculinity is a lyrical theme that Cave returns to time and time on this record. On a sheer physical level ‘No Pussy Blues’ has got the best wah-wah guitar this side of The Stooges’ ‘1969’.

‘Electric Alice’ is a laid back brooding swirl of a song, the title track is a creepy statement of intent with a particularly nasty but beautifully discordant guitar squeal. It should be noted that Cave is for the first time ever playing guitar on this record after only buying one a mere month before. His chopping untrained style only adds to the excitement, don’t drop that guitar Nick.

‘I don’t Need you (To Set Me Free) is the song most likely to fit comfortably on a Bad Seeds album but for the most part this band has a different name for a reason… ‘Man in The Moon’ is a touching lament to a passed away father and further explores the theme of change and end that moves throughout this record.

It would be extremely patronising and lazy to label this record off as a rich man’s folly as this is a cohesive, engaging, violent and endearing body of work. Like most truly great artists a little less hair and few more wrinkles only fuels their fire.



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