Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! : Nick Cave : Review : Rolling Stone

Nick Cave will obviously live forever, just because the devil's scared of him. Ever since he stomped out of the junkyard with the Birthday Party, Cave has walked tall in the role of Lucifer's rock & roll boyfriend. But for some weird reason, he's been churning out his most passionate music lately, from his noisy Grinderman project to the torch ballads of Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. It's not every goth-punk fiend who can celebrate his fiftieth birthday with an album as loud, filthy and brilliant as Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! Cave growls his deranged death-and-resurrection tales, with the travelogue "Albert Goes West" mourning an old friend who got lost "deep in the weeping forests of Le Vulva." The Bad Seeds sound wilder than ever — guitarist Warren Ellis damn near steals the show on the hysterically heavy-breathing "Lie Down Here," where Cave vows, "I'll build a million of you, baby, and every single one of them will be mine." Best of all, "Today's Lesson" celebrates Janie (she has "pretty knees") and Mr. Sandman, who "likes to congregate around the intersection of Janie's jeans" — a very Nick Cave love story.