REVIEW: 'Idiot Prayer' Is Nick Cave As Bare As He's Ever Been

Given Cave’s drive to 'create through crisis' - and create prodigiously just in general - it would have been unlikely for him to spend COVID, and his cancelled European/UK tour, sitting on his hands.

In his Red Hand Files, back in March, he told a fan that his initial reaction was to go into "overdrive with ideas of how to fill that space". Options included everything from writing an album to holding songwriting classes to streaming a cooking show (and if that last one was ever a serious consideration we hope it materialises someday).

After that initial flurry of activity, Cave says he came to the conclusion that the pandemic was a time to observe and reflect, not to create. Obviously that didn’t quite stick, because here we are with lockdown’s lushest concert-cum-film-cum-album.

Most people with any interest in Idiot Prayer will already know the nuts and bolts; it was filmed in London’s Alexandra Palace, where Cave performed a selection of songs from his back catalogue on piano. It’s was shot on two cameras in a single take - a choice that adds some of the intimacy of a live show. Even in the cavernous space, with the lingering close-ups, and the silence that’s become nearly normal during COVID, Idiot Prayer doesn’t play like a music video.

It was also supposed to be a mayfly - "a prayer into the void" that would stream for a single day and then expire. This might seem unusual, but then that’s the way of most gigs. And it is unsettling, in a way, to return to it now when Australia is finally free of lockdown. In announcing Idiot Prayer, Cave said “we created something very strange and very beautiful that spoke into this uncertain moment, but was in no way bowed by it”. The stark isolation in that achievement is a little close to a nerve that a lot of people are probably trying to leave alone just for the moment. The hurt’s too fresh and the chance of more to come too real. Who still wants to connect with COVID art, really?

But there are reasons to hold on to Idiot Prayer. It’s become the final piece in Cave’s film trilogy - comprising 20,000 Days On Earth (2014) and One More Time With Feeling (2016). The first was a self-mythologising 'day in the life', less a study of Cave than his process. The second was an unbolted reflection on grief. Cave never seemed to close that door again. The Red Hand Files - where he answers questions about dealing with the death of his son with the same compassion and consideration as to whether wearing Bad Seeds-branded tube socks is a bit naff - reveals a man with a powerful need to connect, if entirely on his own terms. It’s a naked space, one which he took on the road for an unpredictable talking tour and solo performances, and then put into this film.

Cave’s words have never been hidden in the mix, but Idiot Prayer strips him of any cover at all. It’s the understated - and take that word with a grain of salt, it was filmed in Ally Pally on a Fazioli - culmination of Cave’s latest transformation, his journey out and our invitation in. 

Suitably it is most engaging at its barest - Cave reciting Spinning Song while walking through mirrored halls, or letting the piano fall silent in Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry so “a warm arterial spray” can splash against the walls. In a way it brings to mind Johnny Cash’s American series (which also featured Cave’s Mercy Seat) - an artist approaching an end and looking back at the years through a lens of hard-earned wisdom. As a side note, it is fascinating to watch this in tandem with Cave’s other COVID project, Bad Seed TV. The disorderly 24-7 stream of Bad Seed bric-a-brac is like winding run-up to Idiot Prayer, an opportunity to re-watch the progression from junk-sick prince of darkness to dapper guru statesman.

It's a gift of Cave's that albums like The Boatman’s Call and Skeleton Tree are inextricably tied to the events they’re spun from, but have also gained a legacy that’s so much larger than that. In the same way, Idiot Prayer will always be a response to COVID, but chances are that’s the catalyst and not the conclusion. Time will tell.

Idiot Prayer: Nick Cave Alone At Alexandra Palace is in cinemas now.