This is one of the more frustrating Cave albums to listen to, simply because it veers so wildly from songs of raw genius to songs that range from middle of the road to filler. However, the great songs (Do You Love Me? 1&2, Red Right Hand, Nobody's Baby Now, plus a few others) more than make up for the remaining mediocrities.

Both stylistically and thematically Cave is building up steam for his next album, "Murder Ballads". The songs are filled with bloody imagery and depictions of death, and the music is both beautiful and menacing. Even some of the songs that aren't classics are still good, such as Jangling Jack or Thirsty Dog. Lay Me Low is a flat out stinker, and Loverman is a would-be masterpiece that gets lost in a screechy production.

The album as a whole isn't Nick Cave's best work, but it does contain a few of his greatest songs and displays a restless creative energy throughout.

Listening to this gloomy, heroin-soaked collection of songs had me ready to quit my job, divorce my wife and hunt down Nick and tell him he was to blame. Instead, I kept the job and bought the rest of his albums. The jury's still out about the marriage, but in the end, I'm convinced that my life will end in a fiery disaster and Nick will somehow be to blame.

On 'Let Love In', Cave creates a pretty horrific 'anti-love' kind of mood - from the subtle cruelty of 'Nobody's Baby Now', to the demonic fury of 'Loverman', to the chilling pedophile in 'Do You Love Me (Part II)'. These are some really good songs that don't shy away from heavy themes, and in truth it is a relentlessly melancholic, violent album. The classic 'Do You Love Me' could be interpreted as the song of a brutal rapist, and the frantic 'Jangling Jack' is a pretty wrenching tale.

But that doesn't mean it's a bad album; rather, it's a d**n good one. It's hard-hitting, powerful and reveals all its charms and nuances after multiple listens. Cave comes through as a master songwriter and balladeer. This is top notch work.