Prayer Remembered by Slowdive

Album: Everything Is Alive (2023)

License This Song

artistfacts

Songfacts®:

"Prayer Remembered" is a dreamy, melodic instrumental that exemplifies Slowdive's shoegaze style. Neil Halstead, Slowdive's lead guitarist and songwriter, originally composed the song three days after the birth of his son Albert. He wrote the piece late one night after returning home from the hospital, sitting down at a keyboard and spontaneously creating the initial melody.
The track found its home on Everything Is Alive, Slowdive's first album in six years. Had the record been conceived in happier times, it might have mirrored the optimistic joy of fresh beginnings. But life, as we know, isn't a smooth road. As the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, sorrow visited other members of the band. Singer Rachel Goswell mourned the loss of her mother, while drummer Simon Scott grieved the passing of his father.

"Neil wrote the album, but with the death of our parents during its making, you've got that atmosphere coming into the studio," Goswell told Uncut magazine. "The first session we had together was in October 2020. Simon's loss was April, mine was in June, and that was during the second lockdown. It was weird coming in with that grief. It was sad to have Simon in the same situation, obviously, but equally good that we have each other, to talk to privately, away from everybody else."
"Prayer Remembered" balances the deaths with new life. "I ended up bringing it into the Slowdive sessions quite late on just because there was something I felt we needed on the record," Halstead told Apple Music.
Many of the Everything Is Alive tracks came from a pile of material using modular synthesizers composed by Halstead in 2019. Of the 30 ideas he introduced to his bandmates, "Prayer Remembered" was already "fairly fully formed," according to Goswell.

Halstead had bassist Nick Chaplin, guitarist Christian Savill, and Scott play along with his original synth part, only to then pull the synth out of the mix altogether and add a few extra elements.

"The band played that live, and it was done quite quickly," Goswell told Billboard.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

More Songfacts:

The Man Who Sold The WorldDavid Bowie

David Bowie was in a mystical state when he wrote "The Man Who Sold The World," which he said happened during his "15 minutes of Buddhism."

I Remember EverythingZach Bryan

Zach Bryan and Kacey Musgraves had both gone through divorces when they wrote and recorded the wrenching duet "I Remember Everything." It was the first #1 Hot 100 hit for each of them.

Thinking Out LoudEd Sheeran

Ed Sheeran wrote the 2014 love song "Thinking Out Loud" about his girlfriend at the time, Athina Andrelos. They split the following year, and Ed started seeing Cherry Seaborn, whom he married in 2019; songs like "Perfect" and "No Strings" are about her.

The Man Comes AroundJohnny Cash

The idea for "The Man Comes Around" came to Johnny Cash from a dream he had where he was in Buckingham Palace and the Queen said to him, "Johnny Cash, you're just like a thorn tree in a whirlwind."

Eyes Without A FaceBilly Idol

Billy Idol's "Eyes Without A Face" has a gruesome inspiration. It's based on a 1959 French movie about a surgeon who abducts young women and removes their facial features.

Kickstart My HeartMötley Crüe

"Kickstart My Heart" is about all the ways Motley Crue gets their blood flowing without drugs. It was inspired by their bass player Nikki Sixx, who claimed he had to be revived with a shot of adrenaline to the heart after an overdose.