Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS
(Mute)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' newest collection of surreal lyrics and sonic landscapes, Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, can't help but be dominated by the opening title track. The story of Jesus' friend Lazarus' post-resurrection life of fame, drugs and debauchery is such a bizarre curio that the listener is captivated — especially when it comes to the organ-laden refrain, "I don't know what it is/ But there's definitely something goin' on upstairs."
The Bad Seeds continue to provide airtight grooves (swapping instruments such as maracas, mandocasters and 12-string lutes like musical chairs) over which Cave delivers his sung-spoken incantations. For example, "Night of the Lotus Eaters" is supplemented by Mick Harvey's hypnotic bass line, while Cave articulates the approaching doom of modern living by singing, "Get ready to shoot yourself."
Images of planets, stars and religion recur, as if the songwriter had recently returned from isolation in some vast wilderness with this cache of metaphysically charged rants. It's not all genius: A few songs — "Today's Lesson," "Moonland" and "Albert Goes West" — are little more than filler in a disc that brims with lyrical brilliance.
Along with the title track, highlights include "More News From Nowhere" and "Jesus of the Moon," which features an ominous flute solo over a beguiling shuffle rhythm.
While the title song may capture center stage, the real find is the searing and sonically layered "We Call Upon the Author." With pulsing organs and scorching percussion, Cave takes clever literary references and morphs them into a plea for justifying the world's sad state. "Bukowski was a jerk/ Berryman was best/ He wrote like wet papier mache/ He went the Heming-way/ Weirdly on wings and with maximum pain/ We call upon the author to explain!" 3.5 stars —Jason Kushner
Blame It on Gravity
OLD 97'S
(New West)
The Old 97's have spent the past 15 years perfecting a brilliant distillation of Texas twang, Beatles pop and the Telecaster rock favored by the likes of Gram Parsons. Frontman Rhett Miller's solo forays have skewed more pop, but everything he's done with the Old 97's puts his broken-heart croon over a striking balance of grabby hooks and roadhouse power. For Blame it On Gravity, the quartet's first studio recording in four years, the musicians returned to their native Dallas to record — a decision that paid off. The new disc is as clever and infectious as anything since their 1994 debut, Hitchhike to Rome. Lyrically, it might be Miller's best collection to date. On the disc's first single, "Dance with Me," the singer tries to win back a free-spirited young woman offering "flip flop smiles" and "big blue eyes on vacation." The doomed titular character of "The Fool" chases a girl "in a borrowed VW bug/ Just to prove that he was on her like she was a drug/ Hallucinogenic with no hangover at all." 4 stars —Wade Tatangelo
Present Tense
JAMES CARTER
(Emarcy )
As a master of several reed instruments, James Carter has long had the knack for encapsulating the history of jazz while maintaining his own distinct and invigorating voice. On any given Carter CD, you can hear vestiges ranging from Ben Webster to Eric Dolphy, but mostly you hear James Carter. All that applies to his latest CD. Present Tense is refreshingly free of pretense (no guest vocalists or other high-concept marketing gambits). He simply plays beautifully and intensely in a (mostly) quintet setting. The band swings hard, interacts well. The program ranges from bracing originals to the most time-tested standards ("Tenderly") with a number of less obvious pieces by such jazz composers as Django Reinhardt, Gigi Gryce and Dodo Marmarosa. Whether it's tenor, soprano or baritone sax, or bass clarinet, Carter proves an intrinsically exciting and imaginative soloist. His playing is more chameleonic than single-minded — his bass clarinet work can be barbed or lushly romantic, for instance — but he always manages to sustain an improvisational narrative. Pianist D.D. Jackson proves a more than able foil for Carter: His solos range from gorgeously lyrical to so frenetic they seem on the verge of unraveling. Jackson's moments of iconoclasm, as well as some outré blowing by Carter, give the disc some welcome edge. 4 stars —Eric Snider
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2008.