> Switch to Advanced Search

New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Music In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

60 31Knots
71 The Academy Is...
75 The Accidental
68 Adele
70 Adem
67 The Airborne Toxic Event
70 Alkaline Trio
72 Alphabeat
77 Theresa Andersson
74 Apollo Sunshine
52 Ashanti
84 Bajofondo
56 David Banner
76 The Baseball Project
77 Beck
77 Black Affair
59 Black Ghosts
76 Black Kids
73 Brazilian Girls
90 The Bug
56 Caesars
70 Glen Campbell
75 Brendan Canning
69 The Charlatans
72 Coldplay
78 The Cool Kids
65 Alice Cooper
77 Rodney Crowell
65 CSS
67 Miley Cyrus
45 Dandy Warhols
81 Danny!
73 Death Vessel
79 Damien Dempsey
58 Dirty Pretty Things
57 Disturbed
72 Dr. Dog
82 DragonForce
78 The Duhks
75 Jakob Dylan
77 Earlimart
77 Brian Eno + David Byrne
83 Alejandro Escovedo
62 The Faint
56 Feeder
65 The Fiery Furnaces
87 Fleet Foxes
64 iForward, Russia!
61 The Fratellis
73 The Futureheads
59 G Love & Special Sauce
65 The Game
74 Inara George With Van Dyke Parks
74 Giant Sand
80 Girl Talk
61 Golden Animals
64 Mike Gordon
42 G-Unit
79 GZA
64 Albert Hammond, Jr.
67 Ed Harcourt
78 Emmylou Harris
86 Harvey Milk
73 Juliana Hatfield
61 Hawthorne Heights
86 Hercules And Love Affair
82 High Places
76 Zach Hill
85 The Hold Steady
63 Vanessa Hudgens
70 Human Highway
77 James Hunter
68 Ice Cube
66 Ida Maria
69 Jaguar Love
69 Jewel
76 Joan As Police Woman
81 Jamey Johnson
70 Jonas Brothers
59 Judas Priest
57 Kerli
73 Ladytron
72 Leila
76 Lykke Li
82 Lil Wayne
82 Lindstrom
72 Little Jackie
60 Lloyd
55 Los Lonely Boys
74 Love As Laughter
79 Aimee Mann
80 Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog
76 John Mellencamp
71 The Melvins
71 Men Without Pants
74 Mirah
63 Alanis Morissette
56 Motley Crue
74 The M's
84 The Music Tapes
54 The Music
71 My Brightest Diamond
70 My Morning Jacket
63 N.E.R.D. [The Neptunes]
71 Nas
79 Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis
51 New Kids On The Block
84 Randy Newman
78 Nine Inch Nails
75 The Notwist
75 Conor Oberst
52 The Offspring
80 One Day As A Lion
75 Oneida
82 Opeth
62 The Orb
75 Oxford Collapse
43 Katy Perry
74 Lee "Scratch" Perry
84 Sam Phillips
72 Plies
73 Robert Pollard
81 Ponytail
64 Primal Scream
78 Ra Ra Riot
48 The Rascals
71 Ratatat
63 Re-Up Gang
48 Gavin Rossdale
71 The Rumble Strips
65 RZA
74 Scars On Broadway
70 Ron Sexsmith
85 Shearwater
39 Shwayze
81 Sigur Rós
78 Silver Jews
69 Slipknot
74 Sloan
79 Patti Smith and Kevin Shields
72 Solange
69 Son, Ambulance
63 Sam Sparro
65 Rick Springfield
65 Staind
47 Stereo MC's
72 Stereolab
69 The Stills
75 Subtle
83 Sugarland
67 Supergrass
69 Matthew Sweet
77 Irma Thomas
84 Teddy Thompson
57 Three 6 Mafia
73 Tilly And The Wall
64 The Ting Tings
72 Tittsworth
63 James Jackson Toth
72 Randy Travis
92 Underoath
58 UNKLE
58 David Vandervelde
71 The Verve
69 The Virgins
69 Loudon Wainwright III
77 Martha Wainwright
81 The Walkmen
67 The Watson Twins
67 Ben Weaver
81 The Week That Was
64 Weezer
77 Paul Weller
76 White Denim
71 Brian Wilson
79 Cassandra Wilson
87 Dennis Wilson
76 Wire
78 Wolf Parade
61 XX Teens
66 Young Jeezy
55 Yung Berg
66 The Zutons

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds


8.7

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 51 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Official Artist Site

The latest album for the alternative rock band from Australia was inspired by the story of Lazarus rising from the dead, as well as Harry Houdini.

LABEL:	Mute
RELEASE DATE:	08 April 2008
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rock, Alternative

NOTES: Original UK release 3 Mar 2008.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Observer Music Monthly

Musically, the album is a triumph from first to last.

100

The Guardian

It's hilarious, chilling and exhilarating: further evidence of the unique and enviable position Cave finds himself in at 50.

Filter

Cave's themes remain unchanged, but his songcraft prowess continues to grow, aided by the finest instrumental backing and production of any Bad Seeds album to date. [Winter 2008, p.90]

Entertainment Weekly

Cave spits out his woebegone lyrics as if he were a Holy Ghost-filled preaching machine leading the world's funkiest revival meeting.

Dusted Magazine

He sacrifices none of his newfound momentum on the fantastic Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, his sharpest, wittiest, most resolute album in over a decade.

All Music Guide

What it all comes down to is that Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is a Bad Seeds record that ups the ante once again.

Slant Magazine

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is ultimately a rock record more than it is an ideas record, but on both counts the Seeds bring it like a band half their age.

Tiny Mix Tapes

On Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, rock, country, blues, and post-punk rhythms meld with Cave’s lyrics on sex, death, God, and America to create what could be one of his most perfect albums yet.

No Ripcord

It’s a vital record, one that’s Nick Cave through and through, and whether he’s exploring his garage roots or his spooky, narrative tendencies it’s at all points a triumph.

Prefix Magazine

On Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, Cave weaves yet another tapestry of characters.

Austin Chronicle

Jangling Jack's back.

Hot Press

The record is a less sonically abrasive affair than the album Cave released last year with his side-project Grinderman, but it teems with as many musical and lyrical ideas as ever.

Pitchfork

The Bad Seeds sound even edgier and more sophisticated on Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, providing a fitting pulpit for their bandleader's ravings.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Yes, Dig bears little concept or nuance, but it more than makes up for it in raw, oozing passion.

Boston Globe

'We Call Upon the Author to Explain' goes the title of one song, but Cave offers no explanations and no justifications merely another lean, assured set of glamorously gloomy songs.

Village Voice

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! should prove an exhilarating listen for most fans of Cave's oeuvre. It has a lot of the rawness and jagged edges of a classic Bad Seeds album, hopped up with off-kilter beats and loads of loops contributed by violinist Warren Ellis.

Hartford Courant

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is even more entertainingly disturbing, a rocking psycho-carnival ride (complete with swirling organ) that clearly nods to Cave's roots.

Rolling Stone

It's not every goth-punk fiend who can celebrate his fiftieth birthday with an album as loud, filthy and brilliant as Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Mojo

The fourteenth Bad Seeds record is willfully untidy and, at times, pretty chaotic. It also rocks like crazy. [Apr 2008, p.104]

Spin

Feral intensity abounds. [Apr 2008, p.98]

Delusions of Adequacy

Dig Lazarus Dig!!! delivers a platter that is both powerfully-arcane and invigoratingly-fresh, that serves as possibly Nick Cave’s best ‘main-course’ studio release with The Bad Seeds for quite some time.

Paste Magazine

In other words--even though the mood is more menacing than morose--it’s vintage Cave.

Q Magazine

The 50-year-old's songwriting blue streak continues on Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, a triumphant album that merits all three exclaimation marks. [Apr 2008, p.105]

Uncut

The band has never sounded better, and Cave seems to have relaxed into the hysteria of his vocal style; like Elmer Gantry singing Leonard Cohen at a tent-revival.

Dot Music

There's a rolling, free and expansive feel to the album as a whole that is not only one of its most attractive features, but is also the most difficult thing about it to pin down.

Drowned In Sound

While there are inevitable parallels what with one album following the last so soon, this fourteenth LP from the fluctuating-of-membership Bad Seeds is a bolder creation that its predecessor.

The Wire

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! sees Cave at his wittiest and most relaxed, though perhaps also most detatched. [Apr 2008, p.53]

New Musical Express

Even if Prince, Madonna, Paul Weller, Shane MacGowan, Ice-T and Michael Jackson got together to form a freakish supergroup, they’d struggle to make an album containing as much vitality, humour and invention as Cave and his wizened cronies have.

Magnet

The playful Dig!! Lazurus Dig!!! stands among his most mature albums. [Summer 2008, p.98]

cokemachineglow

So, while Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is a pretty good album and as characteristically lip-smacking as Cave is capable, it’s only engaging in the details which, unfortunately, are hard to hear because Cave’s screaming something about vulvas over top.

Under The Radar

For all its foreboding themes, Dig, Lazarus Dig!!! is melodically accessible and a very neutrally pop album. [Spriung 2008, p.74]

NOW Magazine

It’s not surprising, then, that a number of the tunes on Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! sound familiar. Besides the ones that sound like rewrites of Iggy Pop and Leonard Cohen rewrites, Cave and crew aren’t above recycling their own work--'More News From Nowhere' is just a riff on 'Deanna.'

The average user rating for this album is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 51 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

José R. gave it a9:
Well, I must confess it took me three listening (maybe I got accustomed during the last 10 years to Cave the crooner) to completely assess the real quality of this great album. So patience, my friends!

Chris M gave it a5:
This a very bland album - I think critics and fans are so enamoured with Cave that he can't do no wrong. While this isn't wrong, it certainly isn't Abbatoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus, No More Shall We Part or Let Love In. Like Nocturama, DLD lacks passion and a sense of urgency that CAve has something he wants to tell us.

Alex Alex gave it a9:
You'll wind up listening to the tracks over and over again. Favorite of the year...so far.

Matt E. gave it a10:
Beautiful album, sort of heavy and humid atmosphere, quite different from the Grinderman album.

Jay M. gave it a10:
Dig!!! It!! Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are back, not exactly from the dead- like Larry in the title track-but resurrected with a vigor not seen since 1994's Let Love In. Maybe it has something to do with turning 50, maybe the Grinderman project inspired them, whatever the reason, it's time to celebrate the year's best release. There is nary a weak track as Nick explores America and its music with a vengeance. This is music at its best-loud, irreverent, moody, with surprises and relevations at every turn. A masterwork from the preeminent singer-songwriter of the last 20 years. This is what rock music should sound like, this is what a rock star should look like.

allan s. gave it a9:
To stretch the Lazarus analogy, Cave and colleagues have resurrected the groove. We saw flashes of it stretched across wondrous Lyre/Abattoir and then it all went tuneless testosterone with Grinderman. This time around, we have the groove (the Doors), the mood (from terrifying to hilarious) and the tunes to boot. And what a skinny, point black boot it is.

Aaron S. gave it a10:
I'm firmly convinced that Cave and Co. are incapable of making a bad record. 'Lazarus' is probably the most accessible Cave/Seeds album to date. It rocks harder and crazier than almost every band half these guy's age and is a stunner from first track to last.

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds