Music / Let Love In

Hidden in his coat is a RED RIGHT HAND!

Let Love In is the eighth studio album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, released in 1994 through Mute Records (in conjunction with Elektra Records in North America). It's best known for the singles: "Red Right Hand" and "Loverman".

Trope Namer for Red Right Hand. Not to be confused with the eighth studio album by Goo Goo Dolls.

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Track Listing:

1. "Do You Love Me?" - 5:56
2. "Nobody's Baby Now" - 3:52
3. "Loverman" - 6:22
4. "Jangling Jack" - 2:47
5. "Red Right Hand" - 6:11
6. "I Let Love In" - 4:15
7. "Thirsty Dog" - 3:49
8. "Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore" - 3:46
9. "Lay Me Low" - 5:09
10. "Do You Love Me? (Part 2)" - 6:12

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Tropes written by someone without a red right hand:

• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  Despair and deception, love's ugly little twins
  (...) Far worse to be Love's lover than the lover that love has scorned
• Album Title Drop: "I Let Love In."
• Alliterative Title: "Jangling Jack," "Red Right Hand," and Let Love In."
• Anti-Love Song: "I Let Love In" and "Do You Love Me?"
  So if you're sitting all alone and hear a-knocking at your door
  And the air is full of promises, well, buddy, you've been warned
  Far worse to be Love's lover than the lover that love has scorned
• Apologises a Lot: "Thirsty Dog"
  I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry
  I'm sitting feeling sorry in the Thirsty Dog
  I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry
  I'm feeling very sorry in the Thirsty Dog
• Break Up Song: "Ain't Gonna Rain Anymore".
  And it ain't gonna rain anymore
  Now my baby's gone
• Book Ends: Let Love In ends with a reprisal of the first song "Do You Love Me?". The former song describes an abusive relationship with a woman, the latter the character's molestation as a child.
• Call-Back: The first song on the album Murder Ballads, "Song of Joy" (About a man telling the story of how his wife and daughters were murdered by a serial killer) has two back to the previous album Let Love In. The first is the speaker using the phrase "All things move towards their end", which is a phrase used similarly in the song "Do You Love Me?". Another during his description of the murder scene, where the killer has used blood to write the words "His Red Right Hand" on the wall. This is cited as a reference to John Milton's Paradise Lost, but is also a reference to the song "Red Right Hand".
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: "Nobody's Baby Now" in which the protagonist has read several religious texts and travelled the world, but alas.
• Face on the Cover: Nick, bare-chested.
• Intercourse with You: The "Loverman" clearly is obsessed with taking the physical ways ("I got a masterplan\To take off your dress\And be your man, be your man").
• Meaningful Funeral: Taken up to eleven in "Lay Me Low", where the narrator envisions his own death and the reactions of his friends... then his family... then the whole country... then all of creation at the loss.
  ...And the motorcade will be ten miles long!
• Momma's Boy:
  Jangling Jack says: "Momma, momma, is that you?"
• Murder Ballad: "Jangling Jack" is the most straight-forward example, about the titular character being shot and killed in a bar, though death is always just under the surface in most of the songs.
• Mysterious Stranger: The long tall man in "Red Right Hand".
• Obsession Song: More an obsession album.
• One-Man Song: "Loverman", "Jangling Jack".
• Our Demons Are Different: "Loverman," in which a devil is described who likes to "lie beside your side."
• Patter Song: "Jangling Jack," is sang incredibly fast.
• Questioning Title?: "Do You Love Me?"
• Rearrange the Song: "Do You Love Me?" is sang in an aggressive version at the start of the album, and reprised in a more gentle version (with lyrics that are MUCH more disturbing) as the closing track.
• Red Right Hand: "Red Right Hand," consequently the Trope Namer. The song is about a man who goes around doing good deeds, giving people their hearts' desires, but only as the prelude to some unspecified plot. (The song was inspired by John Milton's use of the phrase... Which was, despite the vaguely Satanic implications, of much of the uses of the trope, and indeed the song itself, referencing God.)
  You're one microscopic cog
  In his catastrophic plan
  Designed and directed
  By his red right hand
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud:
  And the bells in the chapel go jingle jangle
• Sexy Packaging: Nick Cave's shirtless pose on the album cover.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Red Right Hand" is a reference to John Milton's Paradise Lost.
  • "Do You Love Me? (Part 2)" is a Whole-Plot Reference to Peter Straub's The Juniper Tree.
• Stock Sound Effects: Bell sounds near the end of "Lover Man."
• Special Guest: Rowland S. Howard, Cave's former bandmate from The Birthday Party, sings backup on "Do You Love Me?"
• Spelling Song: "Loverman:"
  L is for "Love," baby
  O is for "Only" you that I do
  V is for loving "Virtually" everything you are
  E is for loving almost "Everything" that you do
  R is for "Rape" me
  M is for "Murder" me
  A is for "Answering" all of my prayers
  N is for "Knowing" your loverman's going to be the answer to all of yours
• Title Track: If an extra word counts, "I Let Love In."
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Cave is shirtless on the album cover.

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