To make bright and clear your path

With so many songs written about it, you don't have to search very hard to find a love song.

In fact, cast an eye over the charts most weeks and you'll soon be reaching for someone else's fingers and toes to count them.

What you might struggle to do however, is find a decent love song. A song that isn't over sentimental. That rises above one dimensional, proto-sixth form poetry. That doesn't pander to simple cliches. Or insult the listener with sappy rhyming couplets. And very rare does a love song say anything about the subject that a millions other love songs haven't already said a million times before. From love found to love lost, you'd imagine every single aspect of the topic had been rung dry. That any further songs would be drowned out by the sound of several barrels being scraped. But no, still they're released. Rock bands with sleeves rolled up and fists clenched tight. Boy bands sat on stools clicking their fingers and swaying in time. Warbly woman with power ballads blazing. Laddish indie bands showing that they’re human too. Normally as the third single. Or alternately saved for their part in the race for Christmas number one. All vying for a piece of your heart. Aiming to say something about your relationships past, present and future. Hoping to be the song you choose as the first dance at your wedding or the last song at your funeral. All cynically aimed to wring a tear from your eye and a pound from your pocket.

But really, what do anyone of these songs say about us? About our relationships? About love? In the most parts, not much. Very rare are they anything more than generic, over romanticised nothings. Very rare does the emotion ring true. Isn't a funeral depressing enough, without having the trite sentimentality of 'Wind Beneath Your Wings' blasting away? Wouldn't you consider your relationship on the rocks if 'your song' was Robbie Williams' 'Angels'? I mean, really, could love songs be more bland or banal?

And yet, every once I a while, a love song comes along that shows all the others for the pretenders that they are. For me, there is no better love song than 'Into My Arms'. A song that is not only honest and restrained but one that avoids all cliches. Not once does it slip into unnecessary proclamations. Not once does it dip into the well of sentimentality. While the instrumentation is simple and understated, lyrically it is complex. Tackling both love and religion in an intelligent manner. The belief in an intangible emotion compared with the disbelief of an equally intangible higher spiritual plane. Nick Cave's stark imposing baritone voice juxtaposed again the gentle, graceful piano. The song is moving, personal, melancholy and strangely uplifting. The tale of a man willing to go against his own beliefs for the sake of love, 'Into My Arms' is simply a beautiful song. Never has it sounded more so than in this live version.

Nick Cave - into my arms (live solo piano version) original version available on 'The Boatman's Call'

mp3 / music / nick cave