"Editorial abstract illustration evoking the emotional arc of a song titled "Long Dark Night" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. Modest rise and fall. balanced composition. Mood: contemplative, introspective, melancholy, serene, transcendent. Visual style: contemporary editorial aesthetic. Painterly, grainy film texture, muted palette with strategic accent colors. The composition should read left-to-right like a timeline — calm on one side, intensifying toward the other. Strictly no faces, no text, no logos, no literal objects, no band imagery. Pure color-field abstraction with emotional weight. 16:9 editorial format."
Deep calm, gentler than 97% of our 19,209 measured songs — measures out best for sleep.
60
BPM
Long Dark Night by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is 60 BPM — Adagio (slow).
Half-time 30 BPM · Double-time 120 BPM · released 2024
Fan image for "Long Dark Night"
An abstract illustration of what this song feels like. Each image is built from a prompt — the text description fed to the image generator. Listeners submit their own prompts, upvote the ones that fit best, and the top-voted prompt drives the next regeneration. After 100 image votes, we make a new picture.
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Song DNA
Notes: Piano-driven ballad with gentle string arrangements creates a contemplative, intimate atmosphere. Minimal jarring elements with consistent, measured pacing throughout.
Misophonia Triggers
Recommended for: deep listening emotional release meditation relaxation
A reflective country-influenced ballad inspired by St. John of the Cross's 16th-century poem 'Dark Night of the Soul,' exploring spiritual struggle and transcendence.
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Moods: contemplative, introspective, melancholy, serene, transcendent
Traditions: art rock, ballad, country
At a glance
"Long Dark Night" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
60 BPM, dynamic range 4/10, smooth texture, soft vocals. Sits in the middle band — neither built for stillness nor pitched at workout intensity. Whether it works for a given moment depends more on mood and lyrical content than on the acoustic profile. The full sensory breakdown follows.
How this song sits on each sensory axis
A dynamic range of 4/10 is within the normal pop-mix band. There is variation between verse and chorus, but it's the kind of variation most listeners encounter routinely.
Sudden changes: none. Transitions are musically signaled — nothing will surprise you if you're only half-listening.
Texture: smooth.
Predictability is high — the song telegraphs what it will do next. A sensory-sensitive listener can usually guess where it's going without close attention.
Vocal style: soft vocals.
Where this sits in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds's catalog
We have 44 songs from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in the library. Of those, 15 are rated Safe, 21 Moderate, and 8 Intense. This song's dynamic range of 4/10 sits below the artist average of 5.6, making it the #39 most dynamic track of theirs in our library.
Other tracks from Wild God
We have 4 songs from this album. Overall, the album leans moderate in sensory profile.
- Song of the Lake — moderate DR 6
- Joy — moderate DR 6
- Frogs — moderate DR 7
2024 context
Released in 2024. We have 135 songs from that year in our library, averaging a dynamic range of 6.2/10. This track is quieter / less dynamic than the year average. Explore more from the 2020s.
Explore by mood and tradition
Guides that may help
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Karma Police began as a band in-joke and became one of Radiohead’s defining songs — a queasy meditat…
How fast is "Long Dark Night"?
60 BPM — Very slow (ballad / ambient)
For running
Too slow for most running; good for warm-up walks or cool-down.
For workouts
Warm-up, cool-down, yoga, stretching.
For daily life
Sleep, meditation, reading, focus work.
Browse more songs at 60 BPM.
When "Long Dark Night" works, and when it doesn't
Use-case verdicts computed from the song's tempo, dynamics, and sensory profile.
✓
Focus / studying
Yes — low-variance volume, no surprises, steady tempo. The ideal study-music profile.
✗
Running / workout
No — 60 BPM is too slow for sustained cardio.
✗
Sleep / winding down
No — contains elements that will keep an awake nervous system engaged.
✓
Driving / road trip
Yes — predictable enough for safe driving attention, interesting enough to stay engaged.
✓
Cooking / dinner background
Yes — sits in the background without demanding attention.
✓
Emotional release / catharsis
Yes — this is a song for actively feeling what you came to feel, not for background.
Related reading
Editorial guides that cover this song's use cases, moods, or artist.
Nick Cave's albums ranked by emotional darkness — which one is your nervous system ready for?
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds made some of the most devastating music in rock history. But not all darkness is the same. This guide ranks his …
Every Nick Cave album ranked by how close it sits to grief
Nick Cave's catalogue ranked not by quality but by proximity to real grief — from the flat, relentless ache of Ghosteen to the theatrical de…
I rated every Billie Eilish album by emotional intensity
From bedroom ASMR whispers to walls of distortion — a deep sensory dive into all three Billie Eilish studio albums and what each one actuall…
Why this rating
We rate this song Moderate because it falls between our Safe and Intense thresholds on at least one dimension. Moderate is the default for most well-produced music that has real arc but no surprise elements. Full rubric: methodology.
This song in the Music Studio
14/100 intensity
See how “Long Dark Night” sits against your own sensitivities, or use it as a waypoint in a calmer set.
Listen on
Spotify and YouTube links go direct to the track when we have the ID; otherwise they search for it. Embed this sensory profile on your site →
Rating last reviewed: 2026-04-13. Reviewed by the Music I Want editorial team against the documented methodology.
Think this rating is wrong? Contact the editor — every message is read and ratings get revised.
By the numbers: how this song compares
Computed from this song’s place among the 19,209 songs we’ve measured.
Where it sits in 19,000 songs
This sits near the calm end of everything we've measured — gentler than 97% of the 19,209 songs in the library. Its intensity reading of 14/100 comes from a dynamic range of 4/10, smooth texture, no sudden shifts, and soft vocals. Relatively few songs occupy this exact corner of the spectrum.
What makes it unusual
What stands out most about this song is a slow, unhurried pace: more extreme on that axis than 100% of everything we've measured. At the far opposite end of the library sit the songs built on full chaos — sudden changes, huge quiet-to-loud swings, and relentless energy — the kind of track this one is the counterpoint to.
Feels almost identical to
Stabat Mater, RV 621 — Antonio Vivaldi · 99%Mass No. 2 in G major, D 167 — Franz Schubert · 99%Cosmogony — Björk · 99%Evenstar — Howard Shore · 99%
Closest matches by feel across all 19,209 measured songs — not by genre or artist, by how they actually move.
What it’s good for
Sleep10/10
Focus9/10
Workout0/10
Dinner6/10
Party / hype0/10
Scored from this song’s tempo, intensity, dynamics and texture — not crowd votes.
2024 in context
The 135 songs we’ve measured from 2024 average a dynamic range of 6.2/10. At 4/10, this track is gentler and steadier than its year.
Mixes smoothly with
Within a few BPM and close in feel — they flow without a jarring transition.
The fingerprint
Intensity14
Dynamics33
Tempo11
Surprise0
Density0
Predictability0
Vocal force25
Trigger load0
The 8-dimension measurement behind every rating on this page.
Frequently asked about "Long Dark Night"
Quick answers pulled from the song's sensory analysis.
What is the BPM of "Long Dark Night" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds?
"Long Dark Night" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds has a tempo of 60 BPM (Adagio (slow)). At half-time that is 30 BPM, and at double-time 120 BPM.
What is the sensory intensity of "Long Dark Night" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds?
"Long Dark Night" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds rates as Moderate intensity. Dynamic range 4/10, none sudden changes, smooth texture. Moderate is the default for well-produced music with real arc but no surprise elements.
How loud is "Long Dark Night" — what is its dynamic range?
"Long Dark Night" has a dynamic range of 4/10. Within normal pop-mix variation. Movement between verse and chorus but nothing dramatic.
Does "Long Dark Night" have sudden or surprising changes?
No. "Long Dark Night" has no sudden unsignaled changes. Every transition is musically telegraphed.
What is "Long Dark Night" best for?
In our library "Long Dark Night" is recommended for: deep listening, emotional release, meditation, relaxation. These tags are assigned only where the song's sensory profile genuinely supports the use case.
When was "Long Dark Night" released?
"Long Dark Night" is from 2024, on the album "Wild God". It appears in our 2020s catalog.
What is the emotional mood of "Long Dark Night"?
We tag "Long Dark Night" as contemplative, introspective, melancholy, serene, transcendent. Moods are tonal descriptors based on how the song reads emotionally — separate from the sensory intensity axes.
What is the vocal style of "Long Dark Night"?
The vocal style is soft vocals.
Is "Long Dark Night" good for running?
Not really — at 60 BPM it's below most running cadences. Better for warm-up, cool-down, or walking. Recreational runners typically step at 140-175 BPM.
Is "Long Dark Night" good for studying?
Yes — low dynamic range (4/10) and no sudden changes means the song stays in the background without pulling focus.
Can I use "Long Dark Night" for sleep?
Not recommended for sleep. Dynamic range is too high — quiet moments will be ambushed by louder ones.
Should I listen to "Long Dark Night"?
"Long Dark Night" is Moderate intensity — fine for most listeners, but with enough dynamic activity that it works best as active listening rather than background.
Songs with the same DNA
smooth texture, similar intensity — across any genre or era.
Safer alternatives with a similar feel
These songs share similar moods but with a gentler sensory profile.
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Where to next?
You know how this one feels — now go find the next one.