Performer Notes

The Birthday Party: Nick Cave (vocals); Roland S. Howard (guitar, saxophone); Mick Harvey (guitar, organ, percussion); Tracy Pew (bass); Phil Calvert (drums).
Additional personnel: Barry Adamson (bass).
Recorded at A.A.V., Melbourne, Australia and Matrix, London, England.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
This is the Birthday Party's second official album (their first, Australian-only, release was put out under both the Birthday Party moniker and their old name Boys Next Door). The unbridled fury of JUNKYARD's predecessor PRAYERS ON FIRE is subdued here, but the guitars' sinister scrape and whine and Nick Cave's demon-possessed, beat-poet vocals create a deliciously unnerving din nevertheless.
"Big Jesus Trash-Can" comes off like an amphetamine-crazed, post-punk version of the Doors' "W.A.S.P. (Texas Radio & the Big Beat)," while Cave's ranting on the almost jazzy "Release the Bats" suggests an unholy confluence of Count Dracula, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Rotten. Throughout the album, the Birthday Party grinds no-wave guitar, free-jazz craziness, and punk-processed Captain Beefheart angularity in their own twisted blender. Evolution is hinted at by the presence of several less chaotic tracks that exploit the kind of horror-movie swamp-blues that would typify the group's final recordings, and Cave's early solo efforts.

Professional Reviews

Q (7/01, p.86) - Included in Q's "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time" - "...Cave vomits his lyrics over pummelling, screeching music as The Birthday Party expel collective demons that have roosted in rock's darker belfries ever since..."

Alternative Press (12/00, p.106) - "...One of the few rock groups to extend the Stooges' hell-raising legacy....[They] remain harrowing listening nearly 20 years after their demise..."

NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #82 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.'

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