The Caveman Returns

The sunny land of Australia conjures images of sports stars, TV soaps, barbecues, Crocodile Dundee and Kylie Minogue. And then there's Nick Cave, whose very name calls to mind the devil and darkness. A pale, chain-smoking, pessimistic ex-junkie, Cave is the very antithesis of the affable Aussie. He has spent the past 20 years and 10 albums in a tortured struggle with life, love, God and the extremes of the human condition. The songs he writes and sings with his band, the Bad Seeds, are typically dark and fraught. Now, with his just-released 11th album, No More Shall We Part, a...