10 Most Haunting Songs In Rock
6. I Need You - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (2016)
Nick Cave's son tragically died during the recording process of The Bad Seeds sixteenth studio album Skeleton Tree, but it wouldn't be until their 2019 album Ghosteen that Cave really dealt with the loss.
Despite Cave claiming the majority of the tracks on Skeleton Tree had been written before his sons death, he has admitted he did alter several lyrics after the incident, and the themes of loss can certainly be noticed.
The track I Need You was originally interpreted as being directly about his sons death, with the line "Nothing really matters when the one you love is gone, your still in me - I need you" seeming to represent the feelings that are only to be expected after such an incident.
Perhaps fans were projecting what they thought the song was about onto the lyrics, but whether they were written before or after the incident is irrelevant at this point, they represented the grief Cave would have felt, and fans certainly interpreted it as such.
The song felt like an expression of mourning even if it wasn't originally written as such, particularly with the choir-like vocal wail's Warren Ellis contributed during the chorus.
Given the events that surrounded the release of this song, it's impossible not to contemplate the existential fear of losing a loved one when listening to it.