Nick Cave Lists 15 Favourite Songs from His Back Catalogue

September 4, 2023

Nick Cave has collated a list of the favourite tracks of his career, as chosen by the readers of his popular newsletter, the Red Hand Files. In a brief missive to fans, Cave explained that he had been asked countless times to curate a playlist of his best and most essential tracks – but had always thought he wasn’t the best person to create such a list.

So last month Cave threw open the doors to fans, who emailed in well over two thousand playlists of Cave cuts for consideration. “The response was overwhelming,” Cave wrote. “Well over two thousand playlists have come in so far (please stop sending them now!)”

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“Fearing drowning in my own songs, I handed the lists over to my team, who fed them into ChatGPT – that handy little data-cruncher! — which sorted through the responses and ranked the top 15.”

‘Jubilee Street’, from 2013 album Push The Sky Away, lands at #1 on the list, followed by perennial favourite ‘Into My Arms’. The title track from 1984 album From Her To Eternity is next on the list, followed by ‘The Ship Song’, and ‘Tupelo’, from the album The Firstborn Is Dead. You can scope out the full list below, and also listen to the playlist on Spotify.

Clearly, Nick Cave has come around (at least a little) to ChatGPT, having previously been scathing about its use and prevalence in a newsletter back in January 2023. Cave was specifically speaking about AI-created songs, after a fan emailed him a track that was created by AI ‘in the style of Nick Cave’.

“I understand that ChatGPT is in its infancy but perhaps that is the emerging horror of AI – that it will forever be in its infancy, as it will always have further to go, and the direction is always forward, always faster,” Cave wrote.

“It can never be rolled back, or slowed down, as it moves us toward a utopian future, maybe, or our total destruction. Who can possibly say which? Judging by this song ‘in the style of Nick Cave’ though, it doesn’t look good, Mark. The apocalypse is well on its way. This song sucks.”