Nick Cave, famed Aussie singer/songwriter/producer releases his 14th studio album this week, "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" Backing him is a leaner version of his band The Bad Seeds. This is the band's first album since the 2004 acclaimed release "Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus." Cave returned in 2007 for a quick musical detour, backed by three of the Bad Seeds recording and briefly touring a side project called "Grinderman." That project was a no frills, trash rock outlet for Nick and the boys, and is the perfect stepping-stone from the sweetness of "Abattoir/Lyre" to the raw energy of "Lazarus."

As the opening track of "Abattoir" hurdles out of the gate with Cave's thundering cry "Get Ready for Love," it immediately sets the tone for the album. Nestled tamely in lovely pastel packaging, "Abattoir/Lyre" is a double album full of Cave's musings of love, religion and emotion. Conversely, "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" delivers a torrid extravagance that gently creeps up like a fever on all who listen. Significantly darker, and more haunting, "Lazarus" is evocative of Cave's earlier works. It is piercing, yet rhythmic and completely danceable, as heard on tracks "Today's Lesson" and "Midnight Man." You can tell dearest Nick has fallen out of love since "Abattoir" and has let temptation get the better of him in the process. Several of the tracks on "Lazarus" have a sultry cadence, as best heard on the inquisitive "We Call Upon the Author." Then tracks such as "Hold On To Yourself," and the celestial, "Jesus of the Moon," explore themes of relationships, personal freedom and death.

Though Cave's words are powerfully ageless, intuitive and carry with them quite a sting, what makes this album impressive is the juxtaposition between those words and the music. Having now written two film soundtracks ("The Proposition" and "The Assassination of Jesse James"), Cave and Bad Seed Warren Ellis have fully mastered creating musical imagery that feeds off dialog. Veteran Bad Seed Mick Harvey leads the guitar-laden odyssey together with Cave on guitar, piano and organ (he previously learned how to play guitar for the Grinderman project). Drummer Thomas Wylder along with the other Bad Seeds carve out the corporeal terrain of "Lazarus" through a wide range of instrumentation, from the deep organic tolls on the ominous "Night of the Lotus Eaters," to the screeching immediacy on "Lie Down Here (& Be My Girl)".