Grinderman - Grinderman 2

(Mute)

Provided your senses have overcome the shock of Grinderman as camped-up centurions, (we presume you’ve seen the posters), then let’s turn our attentions to the second long-player from Nick Cave and three Bad Seeds (Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos and Martyn P Casey).

More languorous, choral and psychedelic than its lewd blues predecessor (albeit still rampant with Cave’s borderline daft sexual metaphors), Grinderman 2 works best when embracing Ellis’ string-led Dirty Three atmospherics (‘Mickey Mouse ...’, ‘When My Baby Comes’); battling manhood anxiety via undulating cowboy rock (‘Worm Tamer’ – snake charmer, geddit?); or losing itself in the swaggering, psych-fried consummation of ‘Bellringer Blues’.