Prayers on Fire
Who ever imagined that something like the Birthday Party would crawl out of Australia? Like an Alfred Jarry version of Iggy Pop raging over some hitherto inconceivable fusion of Joy Division and the Magic Band,Prayers on Fireis a feast of grotesque imagery and lurching, convulsive riffs--rock as psychotic theater. The Party line was savage jazz punk, jabbed along by Tracy Pew's angular bass lines and the incomparable Nick Cave's regurgitative howling. Especially great: the frantic stampede of "Zoo-Music Girl," the menacing grind of "King Ink,"" and the freak-show horror-wallowing of "Nick the Stripper.""--Barney Hoskyns