Earlier this year, Nick Cave performed a stunning live-streamed solo concert at Alexandra Palace in London, titled Idiot Prayer.
One of the songs Cave played was an unreleased track titled ‘Euthanasia’, written during the sessions for 2016 album Skeleton Tree, and performed for the first time during the concert. It’s a truly beautiful song – a haunting, poignant slow-burner, with its sparse piano accompaniment centring Cave’s lyrics.
The video comes ahead of Idiot Prayer‘s release as a live album next month on November 20, with all 22 songs from the original performance available on vinyl, CD and streaming platforms. The stripped-back concert sees Cave play a wide-ranging set from across his extensive back catalogue, including early Bad Seeds and Grinderman material up to songs from last year’s excellent Ghosteen.
The concept for Cave’s Idiot Prayer concert evolved after a series of ‘Conversation With…’ events in which the singer-songwriter deconstructed some of his most beloved tracks, distilling them down.
“I felt I was rediscovering the songs all over again, and started to think about going into a studio and recording these reimagined versions at some stage – whenever I could find the time,” explained Cave.
“Then, the pandemic came – the world went into lockdown, and fell into an eerie, self-reflective silence. It was within this silence that I began to think about the idea of not only recording the songs, but also filming them.”
Watch Cave perform ‘Euthanasia’ below.
