Grinderman is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds reduced to a guitar/bass/drums configuration, and if you have any stomach for Cave and his theatrical bent, Grinderman is a really good hard rock album. The stripped down band is taut, edgy and brutal when necessary. “Go Tell the Women” is a relentless exercise in tension, threatening to explode but never doing so, while “Depth Charge Ethel” is nothing but detonation. Cave’s stage persona is all drama, transgression and behind that, dark humor, but you’ve got to have a lot of patience for A and B to get to C. Here, he walks the tightrope admirably, sounding dangerous and happy to be in the center of Guyville with his band.

 

If there’s a shortcoming to the album, it’s that Grinderman is not more than a collection of rock songs. The album is Cave and the guys having good, abrasive fun, and as satisfying as that is, it feels like aiming low for Cave.