Customer Reviews

Prayers on Fire

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is a work of absolute greatness. Just about every single song is fabulous. There are a few uneven points, like, for instance, "Yard," which in my opinion was a bit too draggy. And the lyrics are sort of... um.... how to say this.... enigmatic. There we go. Despite this, this is one damn damn fine album. It somehow manages to straddle the line between their earlier Boys Next Door records, their major Stooges influence, AND their later gradual metamorphosis into 80's goth rock heroes (as seen on Mutiny and The Bad Seed.) The good massively outweighs the bad in this case, though, and I highly recommend this work to anyone who has not heard the Birthday Party before. A very good introduction to either Hee Haw or Mutiny/The Bad Seed, and probably the best place to start with the Birthday Party. (P.S.: The 'Explicit Lyrics' label is very misleading. I don't know who put it on there, but it doesn't belong. The lyrics are too enigmatic to be 'explicit' anyway.)

An epochal No-Wave masterpiece, transcended only by its successor, Junkyard. One can see this album as the turning point upon which Nick Cave's sardonic dementia truly began to shine through in his songwriting. Features such indispensable classics as "Dull Day" and "Nick The Stripper", the latter of which is an unflinching take on self-loathing that Kurt Cobain could have learned a lot from. A must-have for all Nick Cave/Birthday Party/No-Wave enthusiasts.

This album was a turning point in rock music, or perhaps even in music in general. It's Mahler's 9th of rock music, and so is all Cave's later work, really. Not that this is "symphonic" music, mind you. It's raw emotion. Violent. Passionate. Yearning. Poetic. Humorous. Angry.

Nick Cave is one of the few original musicians alive today. His lyrics dig into the turbulent male soul unlike any other poet's or writer's of our time. His music is disturbingly beautiful and tender, even when the songs' stories and instrumentation reach near-Apocalyptic levels.

Cave bores a tunnel to the deepest parts of your soul. You may find yourself dancing, screaming along, even crying. It all started with "Prayers on Fire."

rating 4.7/5
ok. what you need to know. Nick cave was originally the lead singer from birthday party. he later went on to solo stardom, as well as acclaim with his band the bad seeds. this is one of the coolest albums of all time. nick and the rest of the party slam through songs with psychotic abandon while nicky boy shouts poetic maniacal stream of consciousness lyrics describing venomous acts of spite and mayhem. this is one of the best "art punk" albums of all time. if you think you might like it then you will. get it.

Like an aural nightmare. Guitars imbed themselves into your brain. The vocals imbed themselves into your soul. There is nothing like this Australian band of the personification of anxiety and terror. That it was released in the early 1980s is just amazing, isn't it? Nick Cave and his cohort Mick Harvey of the Bad Seed's training ground. Not to be confused with their current output, though. Absolutely not.

The lyrics to `Just You and Me' says plenty:

First: I tried to kill it with a hammer
thought that I could lose
the head
sure! We've eaten off the silver
when even the food was against us
and then I tried to kill it in the bed

Second: I gagged it with a pillow
but awoke the nuns inside my head
they pound their goody-goody fists
from the inside-so from the outside
I got good: I stuck it. Dead
Thirdly: I put my lips upon it
And blew a frost across
its flat
I wrote upon its outside-surface
"Tonight we're on the outside surface"
Just you and me girl: You and me and the fat

Any Nick Cave album is hard to review. You honest opinion will seem slight and insignificant towards somebody like him. Because in these days he has become something of a legend. All I can say is that this album is brilliant from start to finish and is worth every last cent. That's all I can say really other than this album far outweighs it's successor, Junkyard, which was, in all honesty a complete drug addled mess. Still had some good songs though

This early Nick Cave, truly but endearingly demented and willing to shred your brain with that dementia, won me with this album. The band is also much more interesting even musically than, say, Pere Ubu, to whom I'd feel comfortable comparing them. More artistic...dare I say more progressive? That still counts! A perfect blend of craziness going on, and on the strength of this one I got all four remasters. And of COURSE I'm over 13...!