10 Greatest Hard Rock Songs Of The 2000s

Over the course of a career spanning four decades, Nick Cave had gone from hellraiser to plaintive balladeer. His 2003 album Nocturama mostly covers the latter format, but on the 15-minute long closing track, Cave and his band go flying back in the opposite direction.

“Babe, I’m On Fire” is the antidote to those who wish mid-period Cave would cut loose like the old days. Through organ stabs and a gurgling bassline, Cave tears through some of the most ludicrous lyrics of his career, shouting out a cast of colourful characters from unlucky amputees to hunchbacked bell ringers to Bill Gates and the members of his band.

As to the band, this is a crossover period, a rare line-up featuring sometime Cave sidemen Mick Harvey, Blixa Bargeld, and his current key contributor Warren Ellis. The Bad Seeds en masse compete to see who can make the most noise, with Cave himself sometimes chipping in to pound a chord on the organ.

It’s an exhausting and exhaustive workout for the band but just what the doctor ordered, blowing the cobwebs off one of their least interesting albums right at the end. For a band so often drenched in gloom and seriousness, they can be very silly when they want to.