Nick Cave famously called Dirty Three his favorite live band. He went on to say about the Australian instrumental band composed of Cave’s fellow Bad Seed violinist Warren Ellis, guitar player Mick Turner, and drummer Jim White:
“When I watch them, they ignite something, I start having grand plans and hundreds of lyrics leap into my head.”
It’s the “grand plans” part of Cave’s gushing that resonates the most in his quote. Dirty Three play gorgeous music, alternating between delicate and thunderous modes, laced with passion and intensity, yet also leaving space to derive complex theories about life and abstract art ,or galvanize long-held utopian ideas into action.
Dirty Three has not issued a new album since 2012’s Toward the Low Sun. Since that time, Ellis has recorded approximately 427 soundtracks with Cave in addition to his continuing contribution to The Bad Seeds, White released his own solo album and seemingly played on every record released in the first half of 2024, while Turner has recorded solo albums and concentrated on his visual art. With all of this non-Dirty Three material and a galaxy of collaborations over 12 years, it was fair to wonder if Dirty Three would ever return. Love Changes Everything changes everything.
Released on June 28, 2024, the new album features six tracks, each labeled “love changes everything” alongside corresponding roman numerals for each track. Abandoning a traditional title allows each track, and the album as a whole, to stand on its own without any narrative forced upon it. The songs on Love Changes Everything are music as abstract art, forcing the listener to take each as music for music’s sake. Accepting that position, here are track-by-track listening notes:
“love changes everything I”
The song and album start off with feedback and perhaps some ambient noises that conveys the sense of a jet taking off, fitting for the return of a band recording after a 12 year hiatus. Through Turner’s jagged guitar, the heavily distorted violin by Ellis, and White’s martial-sounding drums, they land on a groove and a melody emerges. Eventually, Ellis overdubs a second violin to double his lead part, a go-to trick by Dirty Three previously explored on Recliner Notes. “love changes everything I” achieves a magisterial and triumphant sound. Though it’s certainly projection, the first track feels like the musical equivalent of old friends coming together.
“love changes everything II”
Ellis’s piano part is the core of the song, accompanied by Turner’s intricate guitar and White’s rolling and stuttering drums. Swooping throughout the track are ethereal, ghostlike sounds that could be a human voice that has been sampled and looped. These cries are uncanny, as if the song itself is haunted. “love changes everything II” is reminiscent of Ellis’s soundtrack work with Cave, while the piano recalls the music of The Necks. There’s a direct connection between the two instrumental Australian bands as White plays with The Necks’ Chris Abrahams in the Australian supergroup Springtime.
“love changes everything III”
The song begins immediately after the conclusion of “love changes everything II,” the two tracks connected by a swirling demon sound effect. The violin plays a recurring motif with the piano at center once again. Was it a deliberate choice by the band to emphasize the piano on this new album? It’s not unprecedented as their 2003 song “Long Way to Go With No Punch” also spotlights a piano part, but it’s rare within their work. Now, there are two Dirty Three songs in a row to feature the piano. White taps on the cymbals with occasional hits to the snare and the toms. There’s a gradual, almost halting entrance by Turner on guitar. It’s a soft part, as if to say, “I might have something to contribute.” “love changes everything III” slowly transforms as the violin and the guitar play off each other, demonstrating the molecular-level musical connection that Turner and Ellis have shared since the beginning of the band. It’s a hypnotic sound that finally drops away, leaving Turner by himself to end the song.
“love changes everything IV”
Turner kicks off the song on his guitar with Ellis’s violin in the background, moaning and crying. “love changes everything IV” sounds like a lament, full of romantic, mournful longing. The track represents the classic Dirty Three method, showcasing three distinct instrumental voices coming together to play their singular sound. No one plays like this trio. Some might say that the emotional tone of “love changes everything IV” begs for a story. Nick Cave is most likely composing lyrics for this track right now, but such a move would be redundant and unnecessary as the song is its own forlorn legend.
“love changes everything V”
The song begins with tapping by White. Ellis plays long sustained notes that soon give way to him plucking the violin. The sound builds, driven by the collective will of the three players. The sound intensifies towards a peak, a clamor of white noise with each member of Dirty Three contributing individual ideas while simultaneously adjusting to each other throughout. Soon, there’s a quieting and a scaling down to end the song. “love changes everything V” exhibits the absolute expression of three men in a room making beautiful music together.
“love changes everything VI”
The longest song on the album begins with a sampled violin furnishing bursts of processed sound that continues throughout. These flares recall the bird noise within “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Soon, there are multiple violin sounds playing off each other, forcing Turner to find his own place with the guitar. The piano returns, this time with a gospel feel. It’s gorgeous stuff, seemingly expressing the feeling: “Hope is attainable.” The song rolls along like a river. En route, there are occasional changes to deep, rumbling chords on the piano that are immediately withdrawn to return to the previous gospel feel. In other moments, there are sudden explosions of sound, the band spiking in passion and force. Turner’s adept guitar playing evokes both Neil Young and Frank “Poncho” Sampedro’s guitar stylings from Crazy Horse, alternating between modes determined by the song’s particular need. “love changes everything VI” slowly comes down, an easing away of the song and the album. Right before the conclusion, White fittingly goes a little nuts, providing one last flare.
Throughout their body of work, Dirty Three rarely conform to traditional song forms, though when squinting hard enough, a ballad, a rock song, a sea shanty, or an acid western can be spotted. With Love Changes Everything, Dirty Three take on a different conceptual approach than their previous albums by discarding any trace of those previous forms. With this purity of sound and purpose, Dirty Three reject the premise of the Nick Cave quote from the beginning of this piece. The listener is welcome to entertain outside musical references or imagine their own stories within the music, but Love Changes Everything is its own grand plan, needing nothing else and presents an end to itself.
Recliner Notes 