He always wears really debonair suits.
Hands down, he is my favorite musician out there. He's a great songwriter, composer, showman, singer, dresser, etc. He has it all going! One thing I love about Nick is that his darkness is not so overzealous, exaggerated or obvious, but rather he goes for the dark aspects of everyday thought and life. Like Tom Waits, Nick, for me, reaches into that deep part of your gut, or that voice in the back of your head that sounds like anything from a monster to an angel (okay, that's cheesy, but you get my point). I love musicians whose music evolves. Every album of Nick's is different, and he can go from a gentle piano to a howling guitar. As Nick is a musician who has a long career, every fan will have very different favorites. Here are a some of mine, in no particular order:
He Wants You
This song is from his album Nocturama. A lot of his fans dislike this album, but I absolutely love it. There's something about this song, I don't know. I have nothing eloquent to offer, it just does it for me with the piano and the lyrics, particularly the first verse. And the way he sings the word "oar." I like it.
Still In Love
Another ballad from Nocturama. I love the orchestration of this song. I think it's perfect, and the story the lyrics tell is cryptic and compelling. My favorite lines, "Fall asleep in the summer rain with no single memory of pain," and "Call me up baby and I'll answer your call/Call me up, but remember I am no use to you at all." I think it captures the sadness and complicatedness of love.
Lime Tree Arbour
From The Boatman's Call. This is easily my favorite album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The songs are quite sad on this record, having been written after during/after the dissolution of his relationship with PJ Harvey (You should know this Nick Cave song too, it's glorious, and PJ has a great voice. Plus it's a MURDER ballad).
Bring It On
From Nocturama. Finally a song that's a bit more upbeat. I think this song is, hands down, one of my favorite songs. I love the strings. And the lyrics are so gorgeous. "The geraniums on your window sill/The carnations, dear, and the daffodil/Well, they're ordinary flowers but they long for the light of your touch/And of your trembling will/You're trembling still, and I am trembling too/To be perfectly honest I don't know quite what else to do."
Jubilee Street
From Push the Sky Away. I listened to this song repeatedly last spring when it came out because for some reason it did something for my anxiety that felt like "a ten ton catastrophe on a sixty-pound chain." Also, for reasons the line "the problem was, she had a little black book and my name was written on every page" just makes me think of somebody at that particular time in my life (I will never reveal who). And the way he sings "every page" gives me chills.
Jack the Ripper
From Henry's Dream. Do I really need to give a description to entice you? Isn't the title enough? "She screams out 'Jack the Ripper' every time I try to give that girl a kiss."
Knoxville Girl
From his B-sides and Rarities box set. I think it's brilliant because there's something oddly humorous about something as dark as a murder ballad.
Sleeping Annaleah
From Kicking Against the Pricks. I just love it and have nothing profound to explain why I love it. I think my favorite aspect of it is his voice.
Up Jumped the Devil
From Tender Prey. Lyrically, a dark little number. Do I have to explain why this one is appealing too? The title of the song AND the record's name should be all you need to know. It's creepy, gothic, and wonderful.
Straight to You
From Henry's Dream. This will be played at my wedding at some point. I think it's a fantastic love song, and there is something unconventional about it. Just a gorgeous song.
Are You The One That I've Been Waiting For?
From The Boatman's Call. I was in love with this song from the first time I heard it, but recently a whole new layer of meaning and love for me. Nick is a well-read man, and while I did a study on Oscar Wilde came across some connections. Not only did Nick write his own version of Salome, but he references Wilde's De Profundis in this song with the lyrics, "out of sorrow entire worlds have been built." Wilde's wrote, "but out of sorrow have the worlds been built."
Love Letter
From And No More Shall We Part. As you can see, I'm partial to Nick at the piano. The fun of Nick is the juxtaposition between songs like this and Let Love In or The Curse of Millhaven. This song had me hook from the opening verse, "I hold this letter in my hand/A plea, a petition, a kind of prayer." And the closing words of "Please come back to me." Grab yourself a tissue for this one.
The Lyre of Orpheus
From Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. I love the bluesy orchestration and his re-telling of the Orpheus myth into something darkly funny, "Eurydice appeared brindled in blood and said to Orpheus 'If you play that fucking thing down here I'll stick it up your orifice.'" Poetry.
To Be By Your Side
My final song for this post. I'm not sure where this one comes from, or what it was written for. I found it once just watching videos of Nick on YouTube. I don't think it's hard to fall in love with this one.
That's where I'll end this post for now. I could go on, and on. Maybe in the future I'll do a part two because it's really quite hard to name all the ones I love. Seriously, I didn't even get into his Grinderman music, or the songs he composed for movies. I'm remembering songs now that I should have included, like Midnight Man or his cover of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne. But I need to wrap it up for now. Go forth, read, Go towards the Cave.
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