My despair antidote
In a terrible week, music helps me make it through.
This week is a hard one. We’re living in divisive and divided times. From dire climate change predictions to the human suffering in Afghanistan or the lockdowns closer to home, it is hard to know where to look to find the light.
When I’m feeling low or crushed – and my friends this week I’ll admit to both – Nick Cave is my go-to. Not just because he has a damn fine handle on darkness, despair and human fallibility (although he does), but because he has humour and intelligence and seems to know how to negotiate through pain and turmoil.
Musically, I’m a big fan, but in recent years, his Red Hand Files has kept me afloat. In a world filled with glib politicians and vacuous influencers, it warms my soul to read his nuanced, thoughtful, funny and insightful responses to the questions from his fans. If you haven’t already, I recommend you check out www.theredhandfiles.com. If you’re struggling with grief, his insights are raw and profound, but there’s advice there for the lost, the lonely and those in need of musical or poetic inspiration.
If you need to tune out from the world for a while, I’ve compiled a few of my favourite Nick Cave albums for your consideration – each containing great advice for life.
The Good Son (1990)
A sentimental favourite for a million reasons, this album revealed a gentler side to the previously brutal and gothic fields he liked plough. Blixa and Nick dancing in the video for The Weeping Song is guaranteed to make me smile and I can’t go past The Ship Song. “We make a little history, every time you come around …”
The Boatman’s Call (1997)
I remember sitting in my car in tears, listening to an early version of Into My Arms. But there’s so many reasons to love this album which tracks the course of an ill-fated love affair: (Are You) The One That I’ve Been Waiting For, Brompton Oratory, Far From Me and People Ain’t No Good for starters. “Out of longing great wonders have been willed …”
Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004)
I love this because it marked my return to the fold. I left Nick Cave behind with the 90s, but reassessed my decision when I heard Nature Boy on RRR one day. I can never hear Breathless without thinking of my friend Kate after it played at her funeral, and Harry Potter fans will recognise Oh Children from the dance scene with Harry and Hermione in The Deathly Hollows. “… The sky is on fire, the dead are heaped across the land.”
Push the Sky Away (2013)
A return (of sorts) to the dark side, with tales of life on the wrong side of Jubilee Street. Who else could weave in the fundamental Higgs Boson particle with Geneva, Robert Johnson, flame trees, Memphis and Miley Cyrus. And then there’s the sublime title track … “you’ve gotta just keep on pushing …”
Skeleton Tree (2016)
This is the sound of heartbreak. I Need You, Magneto, Girl In Amber, Distant Sky … if you let me I’ll list every track. The first release after the death of his son Arthur, the album is so fragile and deep and beautiful, cinematic and atmospheric. It took years to listen to it without crying … “one more time with feeling …”
(If you love the Nick Cave photo, visit the website of the very talented Mr Tony Mott. www.tonymott.com)
