YOU'VE GOT TO JUST KEEP ON PUSHING ( OR THE TOP TEN NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS SONGS)

Doom, gloom, Australia. All of these things help to describe Nick Cave and the Bad seeds, but over nearly 49 years has taught the band to never get tired and routine. Below you’ll find what I feel is a pretty comprehensive list. The Bad Seeds have A LOT of material, so sadly not all could be represented, but regardless.

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10  BRIGHT HORSES: GHOSTTEEN 
During this most recent period the band, Cave has been delving into even more introspective pain than before. The cause, or push of emotions all started with the death of Cave's son in a hiking accident. The somberness of this track, not to mention the other records made during this mournful period, bites at the listener, and fills said listener with a deep pain that only Cave's deep, sullen voice is capable of fixing. It’s a haunting sound you don’t quickly forget, yet it moves you to the core. 

9 ABATTOIR BLUES: ABATTOIR BLUES/ THE LYRE OF ORPHEUS
Most of the work of the  bad  seeds is steeped in a certain sadness which makes it easier to relate to. Songs like “Abattoir Blues,” off the 13th record from Cave and his Bad seeds, fit in with the future of Cave as well as his past. The musicianship in the band is at the height of their musical intelligence. And it shows. The drumming, along with the whispered manner of the lyrics and the feminine backing vocals all make the song a necessary inclusion on this list. 

8 PUSH THE SKY AWAY: PUSH THE SKY AWAY
Like a lifeline ending amid a sea of emotions, “Push the Sky Away” has an innate ability to make you feel all the weight of the world as Cave implores you to keep going. The track is rough and awakening at the same time, with the rare drum thump nesting in the background of an ominous keyboard section that makes me feel like I’m walking to the light at the end of the tunnel. It also features some of my favorite vocal deliveries in Cave's whole discography. The man truly is a master of adult contemporary, eye opening emotional music. 

7 FROM HER TO ETERNITY: FROM HER TO ETERNITY
From my initial hearing of this song, it always played to me like a piano puzzle, with Cave racing through a mysterious, thin walled maze as he looks to go “From Her to Eternity.” The intensity of the piano and the slow burning build of the accompanying instruments make the tension even more engaging and palpable. It’s an early sign of Cave and the Bad seeds brilliance, and it finds the countdown at number 7

6 HIGGS BOSON BLUES: PUSH THE SKY AWAY
The rhythm on this slow but meaningful song stands in firm contrast to the lyrics that we’re created on the spot. At seven minutes, “Higgs Boson Blues,” is a slow winding late night dive bar kind of track. It’s easy to imagine the rusted out drunks in a dark bar after midnight with this song humming softly over the speakers. Cave often times is more deliberate and less loose lyrically than he is here, but it adds a new exciting side to the already great work of Cave and the Bad seeds. 

5 I LET LOVE IN: LET LOVE IN
The opening paints in the listeners head a serene country valley, with regret and beauty as the sun cascades across the peaks and plains of the valley. “I let Love In” has a quality that’s both heartwarming and bitterly cold, as the wind of the world comes for its battle as the song progresses. To me it fits in brilliantly with most classic western movies, which makes it stand out even more when you think of it’s place in contemporary music. 

4 JESUS ALONE: SKELETON TREE 
Easily the most haunting song on this list, Cae and his bad seeds yet again manage to sound distinct not only among their contemporaries but also compared to the other records the band has produced in their long storied career. It’s a eerily slow song with minimal production backing it, but it’s in those moments that Cave shines. Perfect for a person lost in the wilderness surrounded by fog, “Jesus Alone” starts the record on a super somber note filled with death, and those feeling persist through the rest of the album. 

3  DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!: DIG, LAZARUS DIG!!!
You can try,  but I Donny you find another song as upbeat as this one on this list. “Dig!” Has always spoke to me as a rambling, stream of consciousness illusion of what the after life might be. Caves vocals are sarcastic, more rushed than typical, but that makes a perfect pairing with the quick nature of the instrumentations. I still laugh at the song, the dirty language that’s well hidden during the track, and of course the imagery of “Larry” who never actually asks to be resurrected. 
 
2 THERE IS A KINGDOM: THE BOATMAN'S CALL
I’m gonna just throw myself under the bus and say that for years, for some reason I kept remembering this as a Leonard Cohen track. It definitely isn’t, but I’m hopeful you readers can understand why. Anyway, the song is monumental in its powerful Imagery, with a much more awakened idea of the afterlife and the powers that be than we typically hear from the Bad Seeds. The piano section at the song's onset is soft and elegant, and while the song never really explodes in its energy, it doesn’t have to because the message is just as strong on its own. 

1  RED RIGHT HAND: LET LOVE IN
This classic, likely the band's best known song, has appeared in the Scream films also the way, but the song speaks a much more sinister tone than its usage in the movies leads you to believe. It’s a rustic nightmare of a country western, with the man with the “Red Right Hand” coming across like a classic villain in a Stephen King novel. In fact, the term “Red Right Hand” was a nod to Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” which to some is scarier than a King Novel. A lot of the music of the Bad seeds has a forbidding counter western wine to it, and the inclusion of the Theremin during the songs second half add an even more mysterious, dark tinge to the track. For those reasons, “Red Right Hand” stands at the number one song from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds