It should come as no surprise that there is an album in Nick Cave's oeuvre
called Prayers on Fire; a fascination with the dark, (self-)destructive
side of religion is more than evident in his later work with the Bad Seeds.
While there might not be any of the explicit Biblical imagery on Prayers
on Fire that Cave would later ejaculate, the title of the album is apt,
and its aptness is revealed almost immediately. Over the tribal thud of
floor toms, shards of trebly guitar, the throb of an organ, and even a
creepily out-of-place trumpet come the possessed, chant-like vocals --
not an incantation to any god, but to "Zoo-Music Girl." It's
the religion of depraved sexuality, bestial urges, and sadomasochism.
"We spend our lives in a box full of dirt/I murder her dress till
it hurts/I murder her dress and she loves it," howls Cave, echoing
Leonard Cohen and finally concluding with the berserk plea, "Oh!
God! Please let me die beneath her fists." Meanwhile, Cave sounds
like he's actually being assaulted by the music, emitting horrific gasps
and primitive grunts. And this is only the first track. On the next two
tracks, language itself is violated and found inadequate. Words collapse
upon themselves in "Cry," with Cave tossing out self-annihilating
binaries like "space/no space," "fish/no fish," "clothes/no
clothes," and "flesh/no flesh." On "Capers,"
penned by Genevieve McGuckin, semantics are made into sausage -- words
are chewed up and regurgitated as warped neologisms: "gloomloom,"
"clocklock," "paperparrent," "diehood."
The lyrics for "Figure of Fun" aren't even printed in the booklet;
instead, merely "obsessive, deadpan, moribund, seasick, etc."
And perhaps that best sums up Prayers on Fire's graveyard poetry. The
rest of the album is a subterranean labyrinth full of "sand and soot
and dust and dirt," peopled by bizarre characters like Nick the Stripper
and King Ink, and replete with images of murder, decay, blood, and Kafka-esque
insects. Then, of course, there's Cave himself, the literate ghoul with
an impressive vocal range who just stepped out of a B horror flick, trying
to parry the intensity of the music like an Iggy Pop wasted on goth pills.
But be careful not to overlook his subtle sense of humor and his awareness
of the camp -- there are also chickens to be counted, nuns inside his
head, and Fats Domino on the radio. With Mick Harvey being the only future
Bad Seed on hand (Anita Lane also contributed one set of lyrics), the
music here foreshadows Cave's later work without quite resembling it (with
the exception of his first album). The Birthday Party are closer to Joy
Division (only more theatrical), the Pop Group (only spookier), or Pere
Ubu (only more percussive). Though present on most of the tracks, the
moody piano that would dominate much of Cave's solo work is never really
prominent here. Instead it's the squiggles of Rowland Howard's guitar
dodging the blows of the furious rhythm section that distinguishes the
Birthday Party. Oppressive and unrelenting, Prayers on Fire is highly
recommended for those aspiring to advanced states of dementia.
(by Greg Maurer, All
Music Guide)
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