There's no denying that Nick Cave's latest album is a work of art. A beautiful, haunting epic about the fragility of life, as Cave continues to work through his grief over the tragic death of his son. It's a worthy follow-up to one of my favourite albums of 2016.
The latest album by Jesse Malin, on the other hand, is a workmanlike rock 'n' roll record - albeit one of Malin's best in a long while. I was a huge fan of his debut album, The Fine Art of Self Destruction (which will be 18 years old next year... frightening) but Malin started to believe his own hype a little too much after that and his output has been only sporadically entertaining since. This latest effort ropes in Lucinda Williams, Billie Joe Armstrong and Alejandro Escovedo though, and Malin's forlorn vocals have never sounded better. Actually, workmanlike is damning it with faint praise. It's a definite grower.
Hardly a work of art though.
So how come, of the two, it's Malin's record I keep going back to?
The Jesse Malin track gets my vote. In these days and at my age, I prefer something melodic and uplifting.
ReplyDeleteMe too.
DeleteListening to Cave's latest album from start to finish is hard work I'd admit. I've had better luck splitting it up into managable chunks. I think there's enough heart there so avoids becoming self-indulgent.
ReplyDelete