The Birthday Party - Prayers On Fire
#148
By MacArthur Antigua
April 6 1981
The Birthday Party
Prayers on Fire
Genre: Post-Punk, Proto-Goth? Grunge-abilly? Mood music for villain's lairs?
Allen’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5
MacArthur’s Rating: 4 ouf ot 5
Highlights:
Zoo Music Girl
King Ink
Ho Ho
This album isn't exactly for me.
However, I rated it 4 stars because it does exactly what it sets out to do - introduce The Birthday Party, a post-punk outfit out of Melbourne, Australia, who apparently thought, "Hey, villains need more mood music for their lairs. So, let's create a dark soundtrack for outcasts and outlaws." .
It's ambitious - the Party delivers dense tracks, sometimes tackling different tempos, and volumes (from quiet primal guttural growls to screeching wails), and usually within the same song. Peripatetic bass-lines collide with relentless percussion that seemed like they threw a drum kit down two flights of stairs. Forlorn guitar riffs intersect with bawdy horn blares. Haunted organ chords push up against another. Through it all, Nick Cave, carnival barks and seduces the listener to join in this Goth den of iniquity.
Again, it's not my deal, but I respect the commitment to the bit.
Picks to Click: "Zoo Music Girl" because it kicks off the album and establishes their thesis with urgency:
Our life together is a hollow tooth /
Spit out the shells, spit out the shells /
You know exactly what I'm talking about /
Don't drag the orchestra into this thing
Mid-album, "Ho Ho" is a hypnotic mess of bass and timpani drums and guitar arpeggios, and capped with a sinewy lead vocal. It's followed up two tracks later by "King Ink", a ponderous and plodding track that surfs on Cave's desperate charisma.
https://open.spotify.com/album/0UdWdUFVEQto3fokLzNAXU?si=-ETQ5FHfSYmLAZVOvLUC7w
No comments:
Post a Comment