The stripped-back songs on this double album – written following the death of Cave’s teenage son – are a striking meditation on grief, loss and hopeThe 50 best albums of the yearMore on the best culture of 2019‘Well, sometimes it’s better not to say anything, at all,” sings Nick Cave, his voice hoarse, plaintive, a hair’s breadth away from breaking. After the unimaginable happened in July 2015 – when his 15-year-old son Arthur died after falling from a cliff in Brighton – Cave, for a while, went silent. He put the final touches on the album he had been writing, Skeleton Tree, then stepped out of the limelight.