Nick Cave is (in)famous for his ability to pen dark, disturbing tales of human depravity and the world’s brokenness, which he delivers with the conviction of a desert prophet. But I’ve always had a fondness for Cave’s more romantic material, and it doesn’t get much more unashamedly romantic than “Lime Tree Arbour,” which Cave penned around the time that he was in a relationship with PJ Harvey.

Accompanied by rolling piano and jazz-y rhythms, Cave doesn’t shy from life’s darkness, admitting that “There will always be suffering/It flows through life like water.” Even so, he’s comforted by the fact that “there is a hand that protects me/And I do love her so.” Life may indeed be suffering, but the love of a good woman makes it all a bit more bearable and worthwhile.

Not surprisingly, Cave follows this with “People Ain’t No Good,” which finds him lamenting the relationship’s dissolution (“To our love, send a dozen white lilies/To our love, send a coffin of wood”), a juxtaposition that only makes “Lime Tree Arbour”’s sentiments all the more touching.