It's Getting Strange In Here...It Gets Stranger Every Year

As Scott has pointed out with his Lady Gaga selection, just because you may not like the artist, doesn't mean that artist can't do a good song. And what constitutes a good song? For me, I'll give a ton of leeway if the song has a great beat. And I'll also give a ton of slack if the song tells a story that's engaging (see Miranda Lambert).

Today's pick has both a great story and a great hook. Much like Bob Dylan's "Highlands," Nick Cave's "More News From Nowhere" seems like a modern odyssey, following a man's path that involves women who have broken his heart as well as the growing sense that the world has started to outpace him.

Throughout this journey, one mantra is repeated...

"And it's getting stranger here / It gets stranger every year..."

It wouldn't be a Nick Cave song unless some weirdness was involved. And weirdness abounds with an odd play on mythology midway through. As the shiftless wanderer makes his way through the women of his life, things get druggy.

"I turn another corner, I go down a corridor and I see this guy

Me must be about 100 foot tall and he only has one eye

He asks me for my autograph, I write nobody and then

I wrap myself in my woolly coat and blind him with my pen

'Cause someone must have put something in my drink

Everything's getting strange looking

Half the people have turned into squealing pigs / the other half are cooking"

The macabre humor continues later on -

"Here comes Alina with two black eyes /she's given herself a transfusion

She's filled herself with panda blood to avoid all the confusion."

Time is the one constant we can't escape. On "More News From Nowhere," time turns into a mythological beast. The song's ambition is huge, but Cave makes it work.

By the end of the song when Cave says "goodbye," you feel like you've been on an exhausting journey. Where exactly you were is anybody's guess, but the journey itself was an exhilarating one.