When it comes to Nick Cave , love might not be the first thing people think of. When he emerged on the music scene in the late 1970s with The Birthday Party, the group were considered a wild card, violent troupe. For a long time, Cave was more interested in rage than romance. But as time wore on and things changed, it became clear that no one could write a love song with such splendour as he could.
The 5 best Nick Cave love songs:
Into My Arms
To couples across the globe, this will be their song. It will soundtrack wedding first dances, romantic embraces, and beautiful moments where love demands a soundtrack so glorious that only these godly lyrics will do. “I don’t believe in the existence of angels / But looking at you, I wonder if that’s true,” Cave sings, calling out into the great beyond and asking whoever’s in charge to leave his lover exactly how they are because they’re perfect that way.
While Cave’s discography is often dark and regularly difficult. It is a pure and unfaltering love song powered by nothing but pure devotion. It also poured out of the artist in a very different way from the rest of his work, as it seemed to come to him fully formed during a stint in rehab when he walked back to his room from a church. From its creation to its enduring appeal, it’s awash with a kind of divine light that places love on a whole other, higher plane.
Love Letter
So many of Cave’s love songs seem to have this timeless energy. In the case of ‘Love Letter’ off his 2001 album No More Shall We Part, it feels like this song could have been written decades, if not centuries, ago. It feels classic in the truest sense of the word as if some Victorian could have been singing it or some old-world composer could have crafted it.
But that’s precisely what’s so beautiful about the song. Cave seems to treat the feelings of love and longing with the kind of lofty, historic weight that they have as emotions that everyone from any year, country, era or lifestyle has experienced. To him, it seems like these symbols of love, like a love letter, act as uniting ties that bind us all.
Babe, You Turn Me On
Of Cave’s love songs, ‘Babe, You Turn Me On’ has the sweetest instrumental. The wild punk that or with his raging murder ballads isn’t one that would commonly be associated with a delicately built layering of acoustic guitars and pianos. But on this track, the musical nest of the song is light and tender, like a gentle breeze on a beautiful day.
As he weaves his way through a half-crooning, half-spoken word ode to desire that feels more like a poem than any rock song; the music sits around it like a perfect soundtrack to the sensations. It leaves you with that warm feeling in your tummy or butterflies fluttering in your chest, just like love itself should.
Far From Me
Fresh from a heartbreak after a brief romance with PJ Harvey collapsed to an end, he suddenly seemed incapable of keeping himself from appearing in his writing. While his work had previously existed in the realm of fiction, he was suddenly writing about feelings and found his work being utterly at their whim.
In the case of ‘Far From Me’, it was a track that took the entire duration of the relationship and inspired him to be able to finish it. It begins as an utterly devotional ode born out of fresh love, with Cave declaring, “For you, dear, I was born / For you I was raised up.” But he found that he couldn’t find the words to finish the song until the love was over, with the lyrics descending into heartbroken doubt as he croons, “Did you ever care for me? / Were you ever there for me?” The song demanded heartache to be born, with Cave admitting, “I have songs waiting now for the catastrophic element to manifest itself. [I need to] experience the disaster to complete the work.”
Wide, Lovely Eyes
Since Cave first set eyes on model Susie Bick by chance in London’s Natural History Museum, all of his love songs have had her face. Bick herself said of her husband’s songs, “I always seem to be walking in and out of them”, adding tenderly that “His songs look after me”.
In ‘Wide, Lovely Eyes’ his wife’s face becomes the very image of a happy life and simple domestic bliss as Cave put his wild youth aside and found himself enamoured with the softer world around him. It’s a simple song, thinking of Bick inhabiting their home in Brighton and immortalising the look on her face as they wander down to the seaside. But within its beauty, he proves that not all love songs need to be grand to be glorious.
