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Critic Reviews
100
If you're squeamish, cover your ears now - Grinderman's debut album takes no prisoners. It's the wailing cry of love bludgeoned by vitriolic distortion; the haggard bones of contentment devoured by avenging bar-room vultures; and the last breath of consumerism slipping into a rat-infested quagmire.
12y
90
This being Cave, classy lyrical dexterity is never far away. But here the fire and brimstone preacher is a little less po-faced than much of his back catalogue, allowing humour (still black as coal) to gain the upper hand.
15y
90
11 tracks that scorch the earth lesser bands traipse on.
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2y
83
This is some of the singer's rawest music since he fronted the Birthday Party.
3y
80
Thereโs a rawness to this record that most new bands โ sorry, most bands made up of new musicians โ would do well to soak up.
15y
80
This is mostly a brutal-sounding, and often brutally funny, record full of odd surprises.
6y
80
While the sound of pure snarl and glee is what melts the speaker cabinets the most, the overdriven menace of most these songs doesn't undermine their worth as songs.
12y
80
The result is one of Cave's hardest-rocking records, but also one of his funniest.
11y
80
Once our boy Nick begins his bellicose bellowing, there's no mistaking Grinderman's amped-up scorch for anything but another of Cave's darkly humorous creations of magnificent malevolence. Long may he howl and snort.
10y
80
There's a sense of going too far, of antic hilarity tipping into something more revealing.
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3y
80
"We've done our thing," sings Cave on Go Tell the Women, "we have evolved." The evidence of just how much is all over this witty, wild and impressive return to his past.
10y
80
The Grinderman hat seems to have tilted the basic Bad Seeds stance brilliantly on its side, bringing out a new humour and a grumpy-old-rocker gravitas.
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3y
77
Grinderman may be intended as a somewhat goofy reassertion of punk vigor and virility, but the disc is no laughing matter.
15y
75
A thorough reminder of what's majestic, funny, bizarre, and poetic about Cave.
12y
70
Grinderman is easily the sexiest thing he’s done in the past decade.
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2y
70
While Grinderman's rough-and-tumble democracy makes for an exciting, illicit affair, it's only that: a gorgeous bit of rough trade to scratch that seven-year itch.
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2y
70
Side projects are usually more entertaining to the participants than to the listener, and you can tell that the group had a great time recording the album. But Grinderman is fresh and invigorating, possibly Nick Cave’s funniest, and unusually for a side project, one of his least self-indulgent.
15y
60
You sense that once this entertaining diversion is done, it will be back to the real business.
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3y
59
Grinderman isn’t angry and it isn’t raw, just a careful concoction of licentiousness and braying disdain ultimately monotonous and unexciting after the first four cuts.
11y
After a lengthy tour, Nick Cave took his guitar, instead of sitting in front of the piano and started composing what would very soon become the Grinderman, a harsh tribute to the old days of his band, with the difference that the gothic appearance has turned into a macho look.
I had the immense luck to see nick cave and the bad seeds live when this came out and it was one of the best lives I've ever been to.
some tracks are amazing like go tell the women,no pussy blues and get it on. Rest are enjoyable but nothing really sticks out as great.
Contributions By
wallver, patton, thisisabtlgrnd, Alejandro Gonzรกlez, erik, MarkyC, OPENblinds, vmbrlyBecome a Subscriber
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Track List
| 1 | Get It On 3:07 | 70 |
| 2 | No Pussy Blues 4:20 | 76 |
| 3 | Electric Alice 3:15 | 70 |
| 4 | Grinderman 4:33 | 68 |
| 5 | Depth Charge Ethel 3:47 | 66 |
| 6 | Go Tell the Women 3:24 | 68 |
| 7 | (I Don't Need You To) Set Me Free 4:06 | 74 |
| 8 | Honey Bee (Let's Fly to Mars) 3:18 | 70 |
| 9 | Man In the Moon 2:10 | 73 |
| 10 | When My Love Comes Down 3:32 | 75 |
| 11 | Love Bomb 4:26 | 74 |
Total Length: 39 minutes
Year End Lists
| #17 | / | Stylus Magazine |
| #18 | / | MOJO |
| #21 | / | A.V. Club |
| #21 | / | Drowned in Sound |
| #32 | / | NME |
| #44 | / | Treble |
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