There's no reason rock 'n roll should be a young man's game. What's embarrassing about all those old tossers stumbling round stadiums all round the world is their refusal to move on form the postures they were adopting in their teens and 20s. With Grinderman Nick Cave has taken a leaf out of the Motorhead's book and decided to celebrate being an old bastard. It's not (thank Christ) grown-up music, but definitely well worn. That's why references to the record recalling Cave's early days in the Birthday Party are no more than superficial. There's plenty of swampy blues noise all right, but not in the service of a young man kicking energetically against the pricks, building vicious and disturbing alter egos. The Caves painted here vary from gleefully exaggerated cliche through somewhat comic codgers, with equal lack of success in getting their end away as they do tending their garden - despite the advice of Radio 4's Gardener's Question Time (on the gardening rather than the getting away of ends), all the way to one of a sinister misogynistic clique of professionals on Go Tell the Women.

But it's not all superannuated fun at Cave's own expense- the title track is a slow and muted looping affair; Depth Charge Ethel celebrates the life force of one of Cave's trademark damaged women. Musically it celebrates rather than tears up its blues heritage, played with all the twisted virtuosity that the Bads Seeds can muster like no others. The bones might creak but they're being dragged around with a an exhilarating verve and enthusiasm that makes you glad to have a few years under the old belt.

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