Oct 072024
 
Nick Cave Burt Bacharach

When you think Nick Cave, you might not necessarily think “joy,” but, the concept has been coming through in his more recent work, none more recent than his new cover of the Burt Bacharach classic “What the World Needs Now is Love.”

The cover appears on the soundtrack for the Todd Phillips film Joker: Folie a Deux.
Cave’s song is part of a larger medley, featuring “Slap That Bass” and “Get Happy” (Cave’s voice isn’t instantly discernible in those sections of the song). The medley invokes a 1940s big band vibe, incorporating a full horn section, along with a xylophone and drums. And while at first the thought of all those ideas combined seem rather incongruous, it actually works.

The idea of love and joy aren’t necessarily new additions to the Cave cannon. In 1992, he recorded cover of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” with former Pogues front man Shane McGowan. And as far as joy is concerned, Cave’s latest album with the Bad Seeds, Wild God, actually features a track with that name.

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