A friend of mine who's into Dylan and Waits recommended Nick Cave to me.
I know his more famous songs but have never listened to one of his albums.
Is it worth it?

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I'd go:

1. No More Shall We Part
2. Boatman's Call
3. Lyre of Orpheus/ Abattoir Blues
4. Murder Ballads
5. Tender Prey

I much prefer the maturing dark balladeer to the 80s underground rocker.

Suffice to say, I wouldn't put Cave up there with Waits (and definitely not up there with Bob) because his songs and albums get boring.

There are occasional classics: e.g. "The Mercy Seat", "Into My Arms", "As I Sat Sadly By Her Side", but all too often the albums lose momentum by track 5. Some songs are 6-7 minutes long when they could be more like 2 or 3.

I'd put him below both Randy Newman and Neil Young as a songwriter. Probably on a par with somelike like Warren Zevon. Good but not "great".

Isn't he in the film "The Assasination of Jesse James"? Late, when Bob Ford is drunk in a bar, Cave plays a guy with a guitar walking through singing the song "Jesse James was a lad..."

This is always what comes to mind when I hear someone talking about Nicky Cave:
John the Revelator

And of course there is this:
Wonderful World

I like his new single 'Dig Lazarus, Dig'.....very catchy heheheeh

DLD

Nick is fantastic!
I bet "The boatman's call" & "No more shall we part" are two albums that are easy to fall in love with.
My personal favourite would be the double album "Abbatoir Blues" / "The Lyre Of Orpheus".

His single with Kyle Minogue was suprisingly awesomo.