Look, we're talking about rock and roll here: It's a Logan's Run-like place where not only are you not supposed to be producing relevant music past the age of 30, you're supposed to be farmed off to a retirement of state fairs and Hall of Fame "jam sessions" if you still insist on picking up your instrument. If you're an exception, maybe they'll let you produce a couple of late-in-life, critically acclaimed "masterpieces" before you can shuffle off and die in something resembling peace. So what on earth does Nick Cave—a 50-year-old man—think he's doing by making such a life-affirmingly pure rock and roll (and it needs the roll) album as Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!?

And as importantly, why aren't there more people like him around?

Cave's first band, The Birthday Party, once sang of a "Six Inch Gold Blade," and, if anything, Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is sharper than that—a razor blade, or, to keep with the title track, a junkie's needle. Much has been made of Cave's reinvigoration from the raw garage burn of his side project Grinderman, but this is an album only the Bad Seeds could make; think of Let Love In's "Jangling Jack," or Tender Prey's "Deanna" (who makes a reappearance in this album's "More News From Nowhere").

Conceptually (and this is, in many respects, a Concept Album—just don't picture Yes), Cave has updated the biblical tale of Lazarus resurrected, setting "Larry" off in the sort of edgy, decadent New York that hasn't existed in years. But it's really just an excuse for Cave to rant and wail about his obsessions—the Bible, sex, betrayal, the fringes of a mythic America where the lowlifes live—over classic three-chord, Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray"/Count Five-style garage rock. And Cave does this in his signature way: majestic, nasty, and, at times, hilarious.

The record is filled with archetypal rock and roll characters like Miss Boo and Little Janie and Betty X, and the band is never far from the forbears of this style; the burnout New York of the Velvets, the "real cool time" ("Today's Lesson") of the Stooges. It's not all a ramble through Cave's personal Nuggets collection, though—there's the unnerving calm of the three-note bass line in "Night of the Lotus Eaters," and the morning-after tale of "Jesus on the Moon" is honed enough to cut through skin.

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! isn't so much a resurrection of the Bad Seeds (as the tale the album tells might lead one to believe), but a reaffirmation of why Nick Cave has consistently proved to be such a valuable, intriguing, and brilliant artist. Even as he ages, he refuses to settle into an insignificant dotage, losing none of the passion, joy, or wit he puts into his music. He knows that music is the most serious thing in the world and, thankfully, he doesn't take it seriously at all.