Dig, Lazarus Dig

It's no surprise to find Nick Cave regaling parables of sex, death and resurrection. The real revelation is his unwavering zeal, preaching with all the passion of a fire and brimstone minister bringing down the Apocalypse.

But this is no ordinary sermon. Reviving the ramshackle rock of last year's side project Grinderman, 'Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!' is, as 'Today's Lesson' reveals, partly about having a "real good time tonite". Never mind that Cave has said his 14th studio album is filled with characters who are "asleep, unconscious, or dead".

The swamp funk title track tells of the reborn Larry who, after digging himself out of the ground, feasts on "lovely bodies like a lunatic" and becomes a star — before ending up a dope fiend en route to the grave via the soup kitchen, the prison and the madhouse.

Henry has it slightly better: amidst the deranged "sha-la-la" of wild singalong 'Albert Goes West', before sucking on a revolver, he gets lost in the "weeping forests of le vulva".

Even the bringer of childhood dreams gets it on: the most twisted bedtime tale since The Cure's 'Lullaby', 'Today's Lesson' has Cave showing off the size of his double entendre: "Mr. Sandman, the inseminator / Opens her up like a love letter / And enters her dreams".

And the raucous 'Lie Down Here (& Be My Girl)' gives away the game in its title — but it's not all about "good time" carnality. After emerging from a meat-locker (a lyric that only the baritone Australian can pull off), the narrator of slow grooving 'Moonland' finds something resembling love — and heartbreak not conveyed so well by the Bad Seeds since 1997's 'The Boatman's Call'.

'Jesus Of The Moon' is equally lovelorn — and even more melancholy — with Cave still basking in the stark beauty of classics 'Lime Tree Arbour' and '(Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For?'; his six-piece backing band playing with surprising restraint and delicacy.

The opposite is true on the frazzled rant 'We Call Upon The Author' — all squealing violas, guitar feedback, mad organ playing and vitriolic vocals — that underlines this preacher's commitment to growing older disgracefully. And getting better and better as he does so…