Junkyard

Not necessarily the worst thing ever

Mother fucking Nick Cave

Pretty neat experience actually. Reminded me a lot of early Pixies stuff mixed with that opera style that Nick Cave always uses. Glad I didnt quit on this early, but im not coming back to this a ton

I am ambivalent on punk music overall. I either like it or strongly dislike it. There are some songs here that I found annoying and dissonant, but some I really liked as good rock songs. First time hearing Nick Cave from this early in his career too. Being generous today, 4 stars.

What people who hate punk think punk sounds like. No direction, no art, just Nick Cage screaming nonsensically over everything.

Nick Cave is a hugely talented songwriter & musician (as well as actor & writer) but manages to hide that pretty well here. At times the difference in quality between this and his subsequent output is so vast I feel a bit bad digging into his past - it's like digging up an artists inevitably shit high school band demos. I can only imagine the band's live performances were where they thrived.

great background mellow vibe. Work focus and zoning appropriate.

Did not know anything about Nick Cave before the Wings of Desire cameo, he was in a band? Who knew!

Even though I'm a Nick Cave fan, this didn't really do it for me.

This was ass.

J’ai pas tout écouté mais c’était sympa

Raw punky punk. Me liky.

Ni idea de qué era esto, pero al mirar veo que es una de las bandas iniciales con Nick Cave, así que sube el interés. Aparte de "Release the bats" y "Dead Joe" es complicado disfrutar este disco de manera general.

Relentlessly and excruciatingly crap

This is not good. Not so much to give it a 1. Nick Cave does it again, why is there so much of him.

Undeniably just some noise, but maybe I quite liked a bit of the chaos?

Not for me

i really tried to listen to this but i had to stop after 4 songs. it just didn’t get any better.

i actually don't hate this. i feel like the instrumentation could be doing a bit more, but it's still a fine and decently interesting album.

Not really vibing with this one

One of those incredibly meaningful albums that is wildly uneven but full of great moments. The Birthday Party weren't ever what you would call "good" but they made up for it with sheer energy and power. It's a mix t Aussie swagger and Berlin doom that probably can't be replicated, and that's also probably for the best.

Abrasive and raw. In my opinion, the run time is a little too long though for this kind of noisey experience but still an interesting listen.

Not gunna lie the cover had me worried, the first word being screamed out of my speaker has not helped. God this is awful

I think it's easy to slate albums like these for being weird and different to most of what's on this list. I respect the bizarre experimental post punk going on here, and I enjoy being challenged by what I'm listening to sometimes. That being said this is bad

junk music

Junk Yard reminds me of Supersuckers and Gas Huffer. I don't like Supersuckers and I don't like Gas Huffer.

Young, punky Nick Cave. Decent enough, no idea why it's so low on the global rankings. If anything, there wasn't quite enough new and interesting about the combination of punk and Nick Cave.

Muss mer chalt checke zum fühle. Es checkt nur leider niemert drum isch 2.15 Schnitt. Ha so null ufpasst, dass i keis 1 drucke cha :(

I'm a Nick Cave fan and never got around to checking out his earlier band until now. Noisy, chaotic and unhinged yet still listenable to my ears. Some of the vocals surprised me sounding almost in a black metal style yet this was 1982 and a few years before the world would be introduced to more extreme metal. This will not be for everyone and I'd imagine if you have a background in metal or hardcore punk you might enjoy it more.

Just awful.

High school me would’ve been all over this half-baked garage band. But now I’m like, meh. Not much to shake a stick at. Fine background music.

I’m no stranger to this album. This time, however, was the first that a wasp crawled inside my baseball cap as I listened and stung me repeatedly in the head. I’m still not sure whether it hindered or enhanced the experience of Junkyard. At the very least, they complemented each other.

Wild and ugly: my least favorite version of NC. Album title and cover make sense.

1,5

I like Nick Cave, but this collection of noises ain't it.

Garbage album with no redeeming qualities.

Ahh "post-punk" where you know how to play your instruments but choose not to for.... reasons. I usually enjoy the weirder experimental stuff. This just grated on my nerves. Like they had moments where things came together and gave me hope. Then they set that hope on fire and pissed on the ashes. Feel free to skip this one. Holy crap this is a Nick Cave band! Dude I am NOT a Nick Cave fan. I haven't liked anything he's done and there is a bunch of his stuff on the list. 1 point off for making me listen to Nick Cave but being sneaky about it!

Not my cup of tea.

I like some of Nick Cave's projects, this wasn't one of them

Rock

It's fun and I had a good time listening to it! It might actually only really be a 3-star but I'm giving 4 anyway.

Pretty crazy and jarring. Some great bass.

Whoever made this list has a ridiculous Nick Cave fetish. Even more shite than his solo stuff

One of the most dark and most challenging post-punk Bands, giving space for Nick Cave's disturbing tales of violence and perversion.

Like many here like Nick Cave a lot, but this younger self thing just don’t do it. Post punk, the grimmer side of the British scene while sort of trying to channel Tom Waits quite badly. Though It’s not as bad as all that to be fair, hints at some of the great stuff he would later do, the discord is the point im guessing as is the shit cover, which is something else but some like that sort of thing. Was it any worth my time, about as much as the 53rd Elvis Costello album I have had to listen to on here, so hell no but at least unlike said 53rd album at least it was something different- 2Star

No words to describe how horribly awful this is.

Scuzzy, fucked up punky blues. Or at least a slightly blues feel to it. Abrasive and shrill, but it does create a unique sound. Messy, chaotic - sometimes it’s mesmerizing and sometimes it just sucks. It’s all part of the intrigue.

The album artwork is kind of cool. The music, however, is indeed a junkyard.

Plus one for the Rat Fink artwork of Big Daddy Roth, but the music is decidedly unworthy of the album art. In fact it’s god awful.

I may love messy music if constructed right, this is unfortunately a sloppy build with too many rough edges and no real content. However the album title Junkyard is absolutely suiting.

This is brutal. And not in the D&D barbarian hacking through hordes of goblins. Or brutal as in the sound of great metal music kind of way. No this is brutal in an assault on my ears. I can dig in experimental and lofi. And while post punk certainly isn't my favorite genre, there are standouts that work well. This isn't one of those. This is just hard to listen to for so many reasons. I'd say it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the actual intention of it to sound like trash, but I'm not sure that is like it much better if the engineering was decent. As an audio guy, I'd be pretty uncomfortable putting my name on this release.

It’s not bad overall but got to be honest, I prefer the Bad Seeds. It has some early Bad Seeds elements but for me the best thing about this is Nick Cave’s vocals. 3

Noise art without the charm of Stump. You get the feeling that they take themselves very seriously indeed.

Yeah no. I had a feeling this wouldn’t be good, but it was worse than I thought it would be. 1/5

Punk, dark and noisy.

Nope, I didn't enjoy anything about this album. Luckily, it was the group's last full-length studio recording.

Bit rowdy for me - but had some enjoyable bits! Cover art is fun - love Ed Roth!

Half shite, punky madness - crazy album cover though fair play

Loud, messy, upsetting, angry and unhingd. Also brilliant

I’d rather listen to my lawn mower

this is the most interested I've been in anything nick cage has attached his name to. weird, kind of annoying, and scary. i like it.

happy to hear nick cave have so much fun

You can't trick me into listening to more Nick Cave.

I'm sorry for being so mean 70s. This is worse somehow.

Good but nothing really outstanding I guess? Glad I heard it but I haven't become a convert just yet.

This is coming across like the The Cramps to me. I like it, nothing spectacular or incredibly compelling but a good listen.

dreadful

Not bad. A little Haley for my taste but had enough going on to be interesting

Wild, fordernd und musikalisch nicht das ganz große Highlight. Aber mal gehört haben, ja!

Sehr garstig und sperrig. Wundert und freut mich, dass sowas in der Liste ist.

Not my style.

Maybe if I had heard this in 1982, when it was fresh, it would have blown my mind but I’m not hearing it in 1982, I’m hearing it in 2026. To me it sounds like a load of unfinished ideas, some of which were finished by other bands, Pixies being one that springs to mind. I love Nick Cave’s solo work but I suppose we all do things in our youth that make us cringe when we think about them later.

This is exactly what you would expect from a proto-Bad Seeds Nick Cave release. Angrier, more Gothic, and violent, but less structured and refined. The production is more lo-fi and oppressive and that really fits the mood of these songs. And while there aren't any Cave classics to be found here, we can definitely hear the seeds (ha!) of where he would go next. Key tracks: Blast Off Dead Joe

That was quite a way to start an early Sunday morning... I wonder what other sort of sinful debauchery I can wrangle up today... Once I got over the shock of it, there were some redeeming qualities... Also my neighbors name is Joe... I think I know what song will be in my head the next time I hear his leaf blower.

Post-punk, punk blues.

Strange and creative album. Vocals are super theatrical and probably could use a bit less. The drums were the highlight for me. 3.3/5.0

Seems I did not get my invitation; good thing I did not buy a gift. OK album, but it is all over the place. 959/1001

Cool chaotic noise from the 80s. I get why people were super as and I bet it would sound amazing cranked up really loud. It’s not the best thing for me while I’m working.

I understand why this album is included, but that doesn’t mean I like it.

Okay, "Junkyard" is supposed to sound like that, and there will always be people who like that "sound." After all, some critics do. As a child and even a teenager, I liked junkyards, but these days there are hardly any left around here. That's probably a good thing, considering all the oil and other liquids that just seeped into the ground. I think this album by "The Birthday Party" will also be picked over and dug up. The stuff that Nick Cave and his crew have put together here is just too toxic. My God, the cover looks absolutely awful.

Overall Rating - 2.25/5 (4.50/10). An overall unpleasant album. Not a fan.

Godawful. Didn't finish a single song.

I love Nick cave but this early stuff just isn’t it. It’s exactly what I dislike on this list. Can see some of his stuff coming through but still almost unlistenable

Dope

2.3

Loud. Chaotic. Splendid.

decline the invitation to this celebration. jk i don't have anything actual to say about it except that it's been a week and I've forgotten about it completely.

no me apareció en spotify

Chaotic Nick Cave. If this was a solid 30 minutes instead of 47, it would have been a bit better. Giving it a four because it's quite enjoyable, but it's a lower four not a high four.

Correct ? Je feel la meta en vrais

No longer in youtube music, ass

Obnoxious and too long but somehow also very intriguing

Aussie punk.

1. blazt - 0 2. hit - 1 3. joe - 0 4. dim - 0 5. hamlet - 1 6. zinz - 1 7. trazh - 0 8. kizz - 0 9. blade - 0 10. doll - 0 11. junk - 0 12. batz - 1

Réttnefni á plötu.

A poor pulpy punky mess

Very bad

Just bad musicians making noise. 1 star or F.

This is not available on Spotify. The album cover is. That perhaps tells me all I need to know of this album. Favourite: When it finished Least favourite: The other 39 minutes

Look, I get that this isn't for everyone, but honestly this slaps and I'm not gonna pretend otherwise.

SpongeBob is silly but this looks like something they would do. 2/5

This album may not have a nice clean production, but the gargantuan vibe it has more than makes up for it. Mixing in parts of psychopathy and sleaze into a noisy Gothic rock sound, it's a nightmare of an album, and that's meant in the best way. I think I enjoy this for the same reasons why industrial music appeals to me: the taking of extremes and trying to make something interesting with them. Despite just comparing this to industrial, which gets rated towards the bottom on this site, the brutally low global rating of 2.15 still surprises me. My initial reaction was that this is a 4, but I think it deserves more, as I enjoy every track on here. 4.5, rounding up.

What the fresh fuck was that

I didn’t enjoy the Nick Cave record with the best ratings on here, so this was never going to be a fun listen. But good god. This fucking sucks. I like weird music, and I like experimental music. This isn’t even music. This isn’t avant-garde. This is just random noises and yells put onto tape. I’ve given ten 1 stars and this was the worst of them. 1/5

This immediately reminded me of a bad Gang of Four knockoff. Normally, I like weird, but this just didn't resonate with me. I did like 6" Gold Blade and She's Hit.

Sounds like they were trying to give you a headache.

😖

No matter how linv abd successful his career is I doubt Nick Cave will ever top Big Jesus Trash Can.

Perfect name, JUNK!

Zero talent. Unlistenable.

Such a blast from the past! Nick Cave's first band. I have always found Australia as a wasteland of creativity and taste (think Mental as Anything for example). But Nick Cave has always been that shining beacon from down under, or maybe the beast from the murky underbelly. I first heard this album in the late 1980's and thought it was rather wild in a post punk, gothic way. He had already released a couple of Bad Seeds albums by that point, but to hear his first unrestrained attempts at music was a bit of a jolt at the time. Its funny as I preferred Alien Sex Fiend as the oddball goth outfit at the time, but I can see where this fits in now. Its a shame ive not bothered to listen to this in its entirety for many decades, its bloody dead rodent great! I love the dicordant nature of the guitars and Cave's incessant howling. Standout tracks are 'Jesus Trash Can' and 'Release the Bats'. I must find more time and make the effort to dig deeper into old Nick's back catalogue.

Crap birthday party

Elite level Halloween music. The cover fits the music perfectly. I particularly liked She’s Hit.

To suggest this album be returned to the junkyard is an insult to junkyards; a landfill would be a better depository for this trash

I guess I just don't know. What drives a person to make something like this? What drives someone to listen to it? Maybe most importantly, what drives someone to tell other people to listen to it? This is almost comically bad. As close to zero musicianship as you can get. This also strikes me as a legitimately evil album. And mind you, I gave a 5 to fucking Marilyn Manson. But this is just grotesque. 47 minutes of artless vomit. Of course this came out in the 80s.

Somewhat harsh, chaotic, rambly punk

Yesterday I got a 3 hour Ella Fitzgerald/Gershwin compilation and gave it 4 stars for its length and this is my penance. I’m sorry, Ella! If I could go back and give you 5 stars I would! Forgive me 😭😭😭

Prva pjesma mi je bila grozna. Nakon prve mi je nedostajala prva jer je ostalo još neuporedivo gore. Mrzim Cavea svakako a ovo je kompletno novi nivo katastrofe. Mrtva trka s Limp Bizkitom za najružniji album art ikad.

생각 보다 정신이 너무 없고, 듣기 힘들었다. It was far more chaotic than I expected, and hard to follow.

Die australische Band um Nick Cave nahm ihr zweites und letztes Studioalbum unter erschwerten Bedingungen auf: Ein Teil entstand im A.A.V. Studio 2 in Melbourne, der Rest im Matrix Studio in London, wo Produzent Richard Mazda die Band kurz vor ihrem endgültigen Umzug nach Europa noch einmal einfing. Veröffentlicht wurde „Junkyard" 1982 über Missing Link in Australien und 4AD in Großbritannien – zwei Label, die dem Post-Punk der frühen Achtziger ein Zuhause boten, ohne ihn zu glätten. Das Ergebnis ist ein Album, das den ohnehin schon rauen Sound von „Prayers on Fire" noch einmal radikalisiert und in Richtung eines schroffen, blues-verseuchten Lärms treibt. „Junkyard" ist kein Album, das man sich zur Entspannung auflegt. Songs wie „Dead Joe" oder „Big Jesus Trash Can" wirken wie kontrollierter Kontrollverlust: Rowland S. Howards zerfetzte Gitarrenlinien reiben sich an Tracy Pews treibendem Bass, während Nick Cave seine Texte über Gewalt und Verfall fast schon predigend herausschleudert. „She's Hit" eröffnet das Album mit einer Dringlichkeit, die keinen Zweifel daran lässt, dass hier eine Band am Rande ihrer eigenen Auflösung agiert – tatsächlich verließ Schlagzeuger Phill Calvert die Gruppe kurz nach den Aufnahmen. Was „Junkyard" von vielen Zeitgenossen unterscheidet, ist die fehlende Berechenbarkeit: Statt einer geraden Post-Punk-Linie zu folgen, kippt das Album immer wieder in Free-Jazz-artige Ausbrüche und Rockabilly-Zitate, ohne dabei an Aggressivität zu verlieren. Es ist ein unbequemes, aber konsequentes Statement einer Band, die genau wusste, dass sie sich gerade selbst zerlegte. Ein Album, das seine eigene Zerstörung zum Klangkonzept macht.

demon stuff

Виглядає як rock’n’roll. Виявляється це post-punk, але з елементами rock’n’roll. На вокалі Nick Cave.

eh, nick cave again, okay

Cerramos semana completa y arrancamos vacaciones de invierno con la banda en la que estuvo Nick Cave antes de lanzarse como solista, como los Bad Seeds. Disco sucio, hostil, caótico. Justamente por eso, bellísimo. Muchas gracias y nos vemos a fines de julio.

this is not my jam fav song: she's hit

Noisy, chaotic, interesting and not my thing.

A challenging listen but Release the Bats is great. You can hear the beginnings of Nick genius.

Perfecto para torturar prisioneros y despejar tu casa de ocupas tras una fiesta sin final.

They bad some good songs.

didnt like it

Yeah, this is bad, but it'd be even worse without Nick Cave so at least they've got that for them

no es lo mío ! 2/5.

Unlistenable but in a good way. So funny to hear this and then listen to 2020s Nick Cave - this is the primordial ooze that formed him. It's like if Bauhaus was a little more awful to listen to. Absolutely criminal that Release the Bats wasn't on the original release - losing out on some poetry: "Sex horror, sex bat, sex horror, sex vampire Sex bat, horror vampire, sex"

- I alr don’t like it I am one song in son - Yeah no I’m good - How does anyone listen to ts bro - Sorry this genuinely not for me

Cool, never listened to a birthday party record before but the bad seeds rule. Look forward to this one. Update: what a fucking racket. Not sure whether I love or hate it.

No está en streaming

Before even listening I'm captivated by the bizarre cover. I could stare at it for hours, like I did with a Green Jellö CD as a kid. The music is just as bizarre as the cover and I fucking love it

Wild to see this is a Nick Cave band. Not the worst album of the list, but not far from the bottom

Feels like Tom Waits went hard. And I largely like it. This has the "interest" factor I felt like Antrax was lacking, i.e. this feels like it will reward many listens. ~Halfway into my second listen and it's already getting better--which is among my indications that an album may become a fav. Some, for sure, are favs immediately, but may take time, and this one, abrasive as it is at times, is so full of textures and interplay among the members, that I feel like it'l be an all-time classic for me.

Kind of embarrassed on behalf of my country for this one. I promise there actually is some music you'd describe as music from here! Some of it is even good! Try Midnight Oil; Men at Work; Cold Chisel; or Inxs if you want some less painful 80s Aussie rock. Anything but this. This sounds like a rough pub after midnight. A bunch of men, each a dozen drinks into their nights, just screaming. 40 minutes of sheer "What the hell was that?" I think it's safe to say "The Birthday Party" won't be playing at my birthday party later today. At least this album knows where it belongs, it's in the title after all.

Ears were bleeding two songs in

Ahh hell nah this is terrible.

sem opiniao, album nao esta disponivel no spotify

This is great. Unpolished but still sonically attempting to sound good. The lyrics are great but can be beside the point.

A punk / post-punk album with some proto-grunge elements- it actually feels like this album was a stepping stone on the path to grunge. I could see how it was probably influential to later grunge and pop punk musicians, but didn't really do anything for me. Overall- not bad, but not for me. 2.5/5

Not the best party music, but lots of fun. Loved it.

There were a few solid tracks, but this album goes on for way too long and I was kind of sick of it by the end. Punk (and by extension post-punk) seems to work best when it is kept brief. Lo and behold, it is yet another Nick Cave project. It wasn't all bad, there were a few decent tracks, but I easily could have gone my whole life without listening to this album, and I would not feel left out. Favorite track: "Several Sins" Favorite track:

I think Nick Cave has always been able to be a little creepy, but his proto-Bad Seeds material has always stood out to me in that way. First time actually hearing TBP in the studio as my only exposure to them prior to this is the awesome Live 1981-82 album. This one is far more off the rails and raw and intense and frankly at times it sounds like they're destroying their instruments. I don't know how to feel about it.

7/10 So this is how Nick Cave started his career? I can definitely understand some of his more obtuse and challenging sides now that I’ve experienced his early work. That’s not to lay full responsibility for this record at his feet, because it seems this is very much a team effort, but it certainly hints at his musical beginnings. In some ways, it reminds me of Björk’s career, starting off with Tappi Tíkarrass, blending punk, jazz and funk elements together, before going through other bands and emerging as a solo artist. But back to this album. It’s certainly a challenging listen, but for those willing to take on the challenge, I think there’s a lot of value here. It’s harsh and abrasive, aggressive and discordant, but it’s so evocative and oppressive that it’s incredibly impressive in its execution. Tonally, it’s like if Joy Division, Primus and The Pixies had a deformed hatechild created in a lab from an amalgam of their three sets of DNA, and then left it to grow up in an abandoned asylum. They are capable of putting together solid grooves that pulse away underneath the insanity, with the more clashing, noisy elements drifting in and out in a cloud of murk that only lets up now and again to give you a glimpse of the sun, before swamping you again with their despair. It’s a heady brew, to be sure, and buy the time I was on my third spin through, the weight of it started to really press down on me, but that was really my own fault for committing to listening to an album this oppressive three times in a day, so I can’t mark it down for that. I think there is enough moments of calm that emerge over the course of the record to ensure that it’s not too relentless, and the quality of the gritty sound design is really high. It’s not hi-fi to any extent, but it’s a perfect layer of grit and depth that embraces the roaming insanity of the record’s content, creating a hard, in your face flurry of sound. It’s not a perfect record, but something that challenges like this doesn’t need to be. It’s boundary pushing, scrabbling around the edges of musicality, but it does that so well that it sucks you in and spits you out, having felt… something. And that alone makes it a worthwhile experience. She's Hit - Discordant, weird and sparse, this has echoes of Joy Division, while throwing in the distinctive weirdness of Nick Cave’s vocal. It’s a patient, restrained composition that goes all-in on its weirdness, with clashing moments among the more drifting, roaming soundscape of the main instrumentation. It does have a centre to it that keeps the arrangement pinned together, primarily from the descending bass line. Sure, it’s weird and is not exactly an easy listen, but it’s deliberately mad, and by that metric, it succeeds incredibly well. Dead Joe - The slight push and pull of the timing of the beat here makes it slightly rhythmically uncomfortable, but it’s consistently done, so feels very deliberate. It’s brash, dark and twisted in tone, and has a persistent, chugging pace to it that underpins that madness with drive and intensity. They are definitely managing to evoke a feeling of barely controlled insanity, and Caves’s vocal delivery just works beautifully with it. The pace increase at the end into a cloud of noise is excellent. The Dim Locator - There’s a cool, dirty groove to this and it shifts pace nicely. The sound is very reverberant and distant, which is a cool effect, but is perhaps a touch overdone. Vibe wise, I think this is cool, but it’s a little too aggressive on the top end, making it a bit more difficult to pick things out. The attitude and insanity of it is great though. Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow) - This is intense again, in an aggressive and noisy way. The bass holds things down well, and the rest of it continues to be like a nightmarish take on Joy Division, like if they’d spent a decade in an asylum and spent their time making music at the bottom of an abandoned stairwell. It’s a lot, and this is quite a long track, so it’s a bit of a tough listen, but I appreciate the intensity and insanity of it. Several Sins - We get something a bit more subtle and groovy now. It’s almost got an edge of surf-rock to it, but doesn’t lose the manic edge. You can definitely hear foreshadowing of some of the type of tones that Nick Cave would approach in later work. It’s threatening, dark and noisy in places, but the underlying groove and brooding, menacing intensity is great. Big-Jesus-Trash-Can - Again, we get a bit more of a swung groove to this one. That riff is really cool and restrained, with a lot of the other instrumentation crowding around it and clashing against it to add that air of insanity and chaos. They do a good job of taking a fairly straightforward and standard musical idea like that riff and just pulling it to pieces and piling on top of it to create a violent and endlessly interesting sonic collage. Kiss Me Black - There are some great beats in here and in places it just crumbles to pieces before picking back up with an engaging and oppressive intensity. It’s just about got a thread running through it, but it’s tenuous in a deliberately strung-out way. Yes, it pulls at the edge of musicality, but that’s kind of the point, I think. 6" Gold Blade - There’s more brooding menace to this that bubbles over with Cave’s vocal in places. It’s got more of that surf-rock guitar ion places, but it’s deeper in the melange here. It’s quite uncomfortable listening at times, but remains quite moreish despite that. There’s something about this album that’s dragging me into it’s world and I’m digging the mental weight that it heaps over the listener. Kewpie Doll - There are some more good, intense beats in here and that cloud of noisy guitars swamps things through the reverberant mix. I bet these guys were mental live. That being said, the oppressive nature of this record does make for a hard listen and by the third time around in a single day, this is becoming a bit much. I appreciate the punch of it, and some of the bass work here is great, but it’s all quite relentless. Junkyard - Finally, we get a nice slow groove that alternates between unsettling and violent in the vocal. There’s cool rhythm from both the bass and guitars here, making for a shifting, shimmering pulse that pulls things along well. This is a bit more patient, but still broods and drives in equal measure.

3.5/5 https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-birthday-party/prayers-on-fire/ Pure fucking chaos, but for some reason it's controlled enough chaos. Not really per se a pleasant listen, but nice to hear the already basics for what would end up being Nick Cave's early work.

Back to back stinkers. 2

I can appreciate what Nick Cave went on to achieve, but sitting through this album was genuinely one of the most abrasive and excruciating 42 minutes I've ever endured. It sounds exactly like its horrifying cover art, a rusty, demonic collision of screeching guitars, chaotic bass, and unhinged howling that feels like being dragged through the mud. This entire messy experience is exactly what it says on the tin: junk, absolute junk.

Pretty aggressive but not necessarily bad or good.

Hoo boy, this one is tough. A lot of this verges on the unlistenable...but I get what Cave and Co.were going for and it kind of works. Lyrically, much of it is hilarious and Cave nails it with his insane "singing." Hey, it's punk rock (or technically post-punk) and it is purposely rough, nasty, and profane. So I give them credit for that even though there are stretches where it made me want to skip ahead. Or skip it completely. You go Dead Joe and Big Jesus Trash Can!

Just doesn't deserve to be one of the lowest rated albums. I mean it intentionally sounds like shit, which I get can be a deal breaker, and you gotta be in the right headspace. But the chaos of this is very fun, Nick Cave is and was a freak, the lyrics are sometimes funny like on Big Jesus Trash Can (is Big Jesus the gent on the cover?), it's loaded with sinister imagery and idiosyncratic bass fuckery and noise for the sake of it. Release The Bats especially is a banger. Gotta be a contrarian here. IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME JOEEE IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME NOW FOR YOU

Yeah, idk about this one. I kinda liked the beginning instrumental for She´s Hit, but the rest is just not for me. I usually never skip, but I couldn't stand any of the songs.

there isn't a single positive comment I can make about this. it just sucks absolute ass.

This is pretty bad. The guy is annoying DNF.

I did not enjoy this. It was like the Talking Heads but with meth

Klinkt precies zoals de album cover er uit ziet haha

I usually like Nick, but this is taking the Mick.

2/10

Not sure how I got through all of this.

Lovely stuff

I found this quite annoying in the most part with the occasional bit I really liked. Weird.

4 beautiful stars for this, one of my favourite albums. Lovely to give it another listen first thing this morning, thank you RGP. Tom.

Entiendo la importancia del disco y respeto su fiereza y carácter abrasivo, el hecho de que sea un asalto sonoro a manos de Cave, que tiene una de las voces más distintivas del panorama musical en general. Pero ha sido un horror escuchar esto, por lo que incluso si era la intención, no puedo calificarlo de otra manera

It’s ok, not my thing.

Noise for the sake of being loud.

(66/100)

No thanks. This just didn't work for me at all. I've enjoyed plenty of Nick Cave in my time, but the sound, the vocals...none of this worked for me. Just not my style of music at all.

Escuchando

3/10

Hard to be mad at something whose cover delivers exactly what it promises, but it's even harder not to rage when this list is already overrun by mediocre white dude bands.

More interesting than good. Gets my approval.

This album is as deranged and wild as its cover, but I wouldn't say it sounds like the cover. This doesn't barrel at you like a monster in a speeding car. Instead, it lurks and stirs menacingly, roaring the whole time. It's full of manic vocals, thumping bass, and grating guitars, but something prevents it from feeling like an all-out assault. Maybe it's the somewhat tinny production? Or the relatively sparse songwriting? There are few verses or choruses to find here, just the ravings of early career Nick Cave, and that mostly prevents the songs from gaining any kind of momentum. There are things happening, but they never fall into place and pummel you. For some that chaos is probably the draw. For me, it leaves me unable to find anything to grasp onto.

I do like a huge chunk of Nick Cave's work, he's a unique man, absolutely fascinating who produces many of the best songs around. I've dabbled with his early incarnation before, why wouldn't I? I'm search of more NC gems. I've come to the same conclusion as before, angry young man finding his way. It's a raw sound for sure, and it seems to be an important stepping stone to his later greatness. It's a stepping stone I'll leap over in the future.

Favorite track(s): She's Hit, Dead Joe, Hamlet (Pow Pow Pow), 6" Gold Blade, Junkyard

"This guy kind of sounds like Nick Cave." *reads Wikipedia* "Oh no...it is Nick Cave."

I'm only on track 2 and it's gonna be a long 45 minutes. I thought I liked Nick Cave, or at least I always understood him to be an important and influential icon of alternative music. Then I joined the 1001 albums and actually started listening to his work. Nothing I've been fed of Nick Cave has been enjoyable. The best I can say for this album is "Better than Murder Ballads".

Just no

Terrible tunes. Fantastic cover art.

Such a dogshit album for such a kick-ass album cover.

A bit annoying after a while

This album will be my introduction to Nick Cave. While he has 5 solo albums on the list in addition to this, I have not had any of them. It's also in the bottom 20 albums globally(which adds a layer of intrigue to it). And, listening to it, I have no idea what to make of this. It's completely wild and mentally insane, with pop songwriting and production taking a backseat to the manic energy of Cave's vocals and the band. A lot of it sounds like random noise for the sake of noise, but there are actual musical elements in here. Lyrics are chosen more for shock value than anything else and often sound incoherent. So, yeah, this isn't necessarily a great album. It's not outright bad, but it's certainly difficult to listen to. I don't quite know what the band hoped to achieve when making this(maybe alienating most functionally normal people?). Anyway, I find this album to be more interesting than it is likable. Also, the album cover makes me want to rip out my own eyes every time I look at it for more than a second. This album is the lowest ranked album of 19 1982 albums by global rating. Other 1982 albums rated by me: 1999(2/19)-4 Rio(4/19)-4 Nebraska(6/19)-3 Too Rye Ay(8/19)-2 The Rise and Fall(10/19)-4 The Nightfly(11/19)-3 The Dreaming(12/19)-3 Black Metal(17/19)-2

Huh. That was... an album. I've known about this album's existence for a good while now, mostly for one reason. This album, Junkyard by the Birthday Party, is one of the lowest rated albums on the 1001 Albums website. Now, those albums that are way down there tend to not be great, but I had my doubts about the perceived "horrible nature" of this album when I found out what it was. I mean, Nick Cave is on it! How bad can it really be? Well, in my opinion, it didn't turn out bad! I don't dislike this album. I don't love it, but I certainly wouldn't call it the eighth worst album on the list. What are you all on about? Okay, to be fair, this album is very much so "not for everyone." This album is noisy and abrasive and off-putting. But, I don't know. I'm not going to deny that this album is all of those things, but it does those things in a way that I found kinda interesting. It's harsh, yes, but in a sorta tongue-in-cheek way that causes me to not hate the album experience. It's fairly punk-ish, in a way. Nick Cave's vocals work very well for this style of music. That man really is versatile, isn't he? The writing isn't super complex, but it fits the atmosphere. The album's not too long. I have no intents on listening to this ever again, but I have respect for this album. If nothing else, it's certainly unique. I don't hate this. Low 3/5.

# Album Name: Junkyard # Artist: The Birthday Party # Rating: 1/5 # Comments: Rubbish # Top Tunes: # Would I listen to it again? no

this is what mad max always should have felt like

Hard pass after the first 2 tracks. Hate everything about this one. ⭐

The cover looks like art from a Dungeon Crawler Carl book, and Princess Donut doesn't look happy about it. Musically, I hate it.

2.5/10

aight

Verschrikkelijk

Just when you thought Nick Cave couldn’t suck any harder…1,5

The whole time I was thinking 'This sounds like a nastier Nick Cave, but I somehow I don't like it. His uses is voice interestingly though..' because apparently it IS Nick Cave. Listened twice, liked it a lot more the second time, still not my thing though.

## Overview Released in July 1982, *Junkyard* stands as the third and final full-length studio album by Australian post-punk band The Birthday Party . Recorded between Melbourne's A.A.V. Studios and London's Matrix Studios, the album represents the band's creative peak before their dissolution in 1983 . Produced by Tony Cohen, Richard Mazda, and Nick Launay, *Junkyard* is widely regarded as a "scuzzy masterpiece" that pushed the boundaries of post-punk, blues, and noise rock into previously uncharted, confrontational territory . ## Lyrical Analysis ### Themes and Imagery The lyrics on *Junkyard* draw heavily from **American Southern Gothic imagery**, dealing with extreme subjects including violence, perversion, religious iconoclasm, and psychological decay . Nick Cave, the band's frontman and primary lyricist, delivers what many consider his most poetic and unhinged work—before his later turn toward balladry . **Violence and Murder Ballads**: "6" Gold Blade" prefigures the murder ballad tradition Cave would later perfect with The Bad Seeds, juxtaposing confessions of violence ("stuck a six-inch gold blade in the head of a girl") with possessed, almost ecstatic vocal interjections . **Religious Perversion**: "Big-Jesus-Trash-Can" reimagines Jesus as a grotesque fusion of rock star and corporate icon, with Cave snarling, "Wears a suit of gold (Got greasy hair) / But God gave me sex appeal" . This irreverent treatment of religious imagery became a hallmark of Cave's early work. **Literary Allusions**: "Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow)" reimagines Shakespeare's Danish prince as a gun-toting, crucifix-wearing figure of terror, suggesting the character's madness manifesting through modern violence . **Power and Decay (Title Track)**: The album's closing title track explores themes of dominance, desire, and self-destruction. The repeated declaration "I am the king" suggests a desperate assertion of control in the face of chaos, while "There's junk in honey's sack again" implies recurring cycles of deceit, corruption, and disappointment . **Parody and Gothic Subversion**: "Release The Bats"—later appended to CD reissues—was actually intended as a parody of gothic rock. The band found the song preposterous and laughed during recording, yet it inadvertently became one of the most influential goth tracks of the era . Lines like "She says damn that horror bat, sex! Vampire! Cool machine" embody this self-aware absurdity . Cave's lyric writing here has been described as putting "Elvis and Shakespeare in bed together to produce bastard offspring"—a fusion of lowbrow rock mythology and high literary reference . ## Musical Analysis ### Instrumentation and Sonic Texture The music on *Junkyard* represents a deliberate departure from the cleaner production of previous work. According to producer Tony Cohen, Cave and Harvey approached him wanting the album to "sound like trash. A scratchy, trebly sound" . **Guitars**: Rowland S. Howard's guitar work is pushed to the forefront with extreme treble and distortion, creating what one critic calls "a soundscape teeming with gargoyles and bubbling with putrescence" . The guitars on tracks like "She's Hit" and "Hamlet" function less as melodic instruments and more as textural weapons—abrasive, clanging, and relentlessly confrontational. **Rhythm Section**: Tracy Pew's bass playing receives particular praise, with listeners highlighting "some of the most fun and engaging basslines" of the era . The rhythm section blends punk aggression with swung, almost rockabilly feels—most notably on "Several Sins," which has been compared to a "mangled photo-negative" of Peggy Lee's "Fever" . **Drums and Production Experimentation**: Mick Harvey played drums on several tracks (anticipating Phil Calvert's departure), introducing what Cohen called "animal drumming"—jungle tom-tom rhythms that rejected conventional rock patterning . The original mastering compressed songs with minimal gaps between tracks and added excessive treble, a deliberate "messing with people's heads" according to Harvey . ### Blues and Rockabilly Foundations Despite its chaotic exterior, *Junkyard* is deeply rooted in American roots music. The band absorbed rockabilly from Link Wray and Melbourne's pub scene, with Cave deeply into early Elvis . "Release The Bats" was described by drummer Phil Calvert as "almost a comic poke at that sort of vibe, with a lot of attitude" . This blues foundation distinguishes The Birthday Party from their post-punk peers—they weren't deconstructing rock so much as exposing its feral, primal core. ## Production Analysis The album's production history is unusually complicated and revealing. **Recording Sessions**: Initial tracking occurred in Melbourne (December 1981-January 1982) with Tony Cohen, followed by additional London sessions with Richard Mazda (March 1982) . **The "Treble Controversy"**: The band deliberately sought an abrasive, treble-heavy sound, rejecting the "slick and pleasant" production of previous work. However, the original mastering proved divisive. Mick Harvey later admitted he "never really liked" the cover art and noted that the compressed, trebly master was deliberately provocative . **Bassist Complications**: Due to Tracy Pew's imprisonment on drunk driving charges (serving 2.5 months in Pentridge Prison), Magazine's Barry Adamson played bass on several tracks, including "Kiss Me Black" . This personnel shift adds another layer to the album's fractured identity. **Subsequent Remasters**: Henry Rollins oversaw a 2000 remaster that increased gaps between tracks and normalized the sound, which Harvey felt made the album "more normal and probably more powerful" . The 2012 4AD reissue included a bonus 7-inch single and CD . ## Themes and Conceptual Framework *Junkyard* is unified by several interlocking thematic concerns: **American Gothic**: The band explicitly cited influences including Morticia Addams, *Night of the Hunter*, Johnny Cash, and Flannery O'Connor . This Southern Gothic sensibility—decay, violence, grotesque characters, and moral ambiguity—pervades the album. **The Grotesque Body**: Songs repeatedly reference physical degradation, violence, and bodily fluids. The cover art (painted by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a lowbrow icon known for hot rod art) features a monstrous, grinning ghoul—perfect visual accompaniment to the music's celebration of ugliness . **Power and Impotence**: The repeated assertion of kingship ("I am the king" in the title track) suggests a desperate, potentially delusional claim to authority. This tension between grandiose self-assertion and actual chaos mirrors the band's own trajectory. **Authenticity vs. Performance**: "Release The Bats" deliberately parodies the gothic conventions the band was being associated with. The Birthday Party rejected the "goth" label, and the song's ridiculous premise (bats deployed up a woman's skirt, sex vampire robots) was their way of laughing at the genre they inadvertently helped create . ## Influence and Legacy *Junkyard* casts an extraordinarily long shadow across alternative music. **Gothic Rock**: Despite the band's ambivalence, "Release The Bats" became foundational to gothic rock. The NME noted that "The Party have been indirectly held responsible for the rise of a visceral new hardcore, ranging from the Sex Gang Children, through Danse Macabre to March Violets" . **Noise Rock and Pigfuck**: The album is frequently cited as a precursor to the "pigfuck" noise rock scene of the late '80s and early '90s, influencing bands like Big Black, Swans, and The Jesus Lizard . **Direct Influences**: Artists citing The Birthday Party as an influence include My Bloody Valentine, Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), LCD Soundsystem, and the entire Three One G roster (Daughters, Melt-Banana, Cattle Decapitation) . **Nick Cave's Trajectory**: *Junkyard* captures Cave at his most unhinged, before his turn toward balladry and literary songwriting. As one critic notes, "Cave was at his most poetic in my view, because he hadn't succumbed to the ballad form" . Yet the album also contains seeds of later work—"6" Gold Blade" prefigures the murder ballads of *Murder Ballads* (1996), while the Southern Gothic sensibility would fully flower on albums like *Let Love In*. **Recognition**: In 2010, *Junkyard* was listed at No. 17 in the book *100 Best Australian Albums* and was also included in *1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die* . The Quietus' Julian Marszalek wrote that "*Junkyard* still sounds as if it's waiting for rock music to catch up with it" . ## Pros and Cons ### Pros | Aspect | Assessment | |--------|------------| | **Sonic Innovation** | Pushed post-punk into genuinely new territory, anticipating noise rock, grunge, and pigfuck by years. Still sounds ahead of its time . | | **Nick Cave's Vocal Performance** | Captures Cave at his most demonic, unhinged, and physically committed. Producer Nick Launay recalled Cave "completely out of breath and almost collapsing" while bandmates laughed and demanded another take . | | **Rowland S. Howard's Guitar** | Created a uniquely abrasive, textural guitar vocabulary that remains influential. | | **Lyrical Ambition** | Successfully fuses high literary reference (Shakespeare, Southern Gothic) with lowbrow rock mythology (Elvis, horror films) . | | **Rhythm Section** | Tracy Pew and Mick Harvey deliver inventive, swinging basslines and unconventional "animal drumming" . | | **Cohesive Vision** | Despite chaotic production and personnel issues, the album achieves a unified aesthetic—ugly, confrontational, and perversely compelling. | | **Influence** | Massively influential across gothic rock, noise rock, and alternative rock. | ### Cons | Aspect | Assessment | |--------|------------| | **Abrasive Production** | The deliberately trebly, compressed master can be exhausting and physically uncomfortable. Harvey admitted the original mastering was "messing with people's heads" . | | **Nick Cave's Vocal Extremity** | Some listeners find Cave's asylum-inmate shrieking irritating rather than compelling. One reviewer noted "it just doesn't sound fun and after a while it can get irritating" . | | **Inconsistent Track Quality** | While the highs are extraordinary, some tracks feel like filler. One user noted "not as many good songs as 'Prayers on Fire'" . | | **Accessibility Barrier** | The album is deliberately hostile to casual listeners. Multiple reviews describe it as "disgusting," "awful," or requiring "the right mood" . | | **Controversial Cover Art** | Even Mick Harvey admitted he "never really liked" the Ed Roth cover, feeling it didn't represent the album well . | | **Remaster Controversies** | Different versions (original treble-heavy master vs. Rollins remaster with longer gaps) divide fans. | | **Dated Elements** | Some of the no-wave affectations and shock-value lyrics may feel less transgressive to modern ears. | ## Conclusion *Junkyard* is not an easy listen, nor does it aspire to be. It is an album that actively repels casual engagement, demanding instead a willingness to be assaulted, challenged, and possibly alienated. Yet for listeners who can meet it on its own terms, it offers a singular vision: rock music stripped of pretense and hygiene, reduced to its feral, primal components. The Birthday Party achieved something paradoxical with *Junkyard*: an album of calculated chaos, deliberate ugliness, and sincere artistic ambition. It is simultaneously a parody of gothic excess and a genuine masterpiece of the form; a joke that became deadly serious; an ending that laid groundwork for decades of subsequent music. As one listener put it, this is where "possibilities arise from chaos and by pulling together remote and ugly influences" . *Junkyard* remains a landmark—a junkyard king ruling over a domain of beautiful, terrifying wreckage. **Rating**: Essential for fans of post-punk, noise rock, and Nick Cave's early career. Recommended for adventurous listeners only.

Maso

Wasn't able to find this Spotify but thanks to this link I was able to find a lot of the songs: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLglUu7rOaMDtVwnAyTk9BNz80ONuhBxkO Before listening to this album, I noticed this was one of the lowest rated albums. Makes sense why. It's like if blues/post-punk was made with the screechiest, roughest instruments. They do make a dirty/scrapyard sound, except for the singer. He doesn't sound tuff, bro sounds like a zombie tweaking out 🤡. Not sure what made them think a few 4+ minute songs were a good idea. At least it's better than the last album, that had little to no changes in its instrumentation (2.5-3).

I did not care for this at all.

Junkyard by The Birthday Party is a harrowing, claustrophobic descent into sonic chaos that is as intentionally abrasive as it is challenging to parse. While tracks like "Big Jesus Trash Can" and the title song lean heavily into a muddy, suffocating production aesthetic that can feel genuinely impenetrable upon first listen, the album serves as a masterclass in gothic post-punk distortion and nihilistic energy. It is far from an easy or polished record—often feeling like a sonic assault rather than a collection of songs—but for those who can stomach the jagged, discordant performances and the deliberately lo-fi, swampy atmosphere, it captures a raw, visceral intensity that few bands have ever successfully replicated.

I like the track Several Sins and the other elements of the album that remind me of Joy Division. I also appreciate the opportunity to hear early Nick Cave after discovering how much I love Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus. But this record is not one I’ll revisit very much, if at all. 1.5

So close to being my first DNF. Complete shit of the highest degree. Bad enough I had to stand on the packed train from Bristol to London - this made my suffering infinitely worse. Literally unlistenable but at least it was consistently shite. At least it wasn't like anything I'd heard before but maybe that's for a good reason. Album art was fun

Whoever made this list has a ridiculous Nick Cave fetish. Even more shite than his solo stuff

Exactly as frantic and primal as the cover suggests. A real patient zero for noisy post-punk and industrial. That being said, the songs are bit flat and don't always have the best writing. As important as this album is, maybe I secretly prefer patients 1-100.

This is Nick Cave without restraints, running around like a headless chicken. It's raw, edgy, chaotic and confrontational noise rock with a psychological intensity. It's exhausting and yet somehow brilliant. Did I like it? No. Did I enjoy it? No. Did I struggle with it? Yes. But does it deserve some credit? Yes, and I think it's worthy of a 3 at least. I won't rush to listen to it again, but there's something about it that deserves more than just a 1 or 2.

good

🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑 Much like with Pere Ubu, how could this possibly be one of the lowest ranked albums of THOUSANDS? Sheryl Crow is higher than this?? I don't mean to be one of those dudes, but genuinely, you can't handle a little dissonance?! This was pretty fun, although as usual, I think 47 minutes at this level of noise with little variance is pushing it. That said, every song has its own character and I enjoyed that. 1: Bad | 2: Okay, No Desire to Revisit | 3: Good, Conditionally (OR Inconsistent Mix of Qualities) | 4: Great (OR Technically amazing but missing the sauce emotionally) | 5: Amazing

This was a high 2. I can respect that this was a new type of sound and that Nick Cave has an insane legacy, but I just didn't enjoy listening to it. And that's that!

Dig this a lot. Noisy, grungy, dingy, no fucks given. Very punk-inspired music and vocals, with some influence of other 80s artists in this era. I love the chaotic nature of the record, though it all is sequenced so well. This record is a nice find.

Yikes, that was just nothing very good

Nick Cave's success grew out of this manure. Unlistenable.

This was Drunk and coked up Nick Cave and the Bad Monkeys. This shouldn't even be on the 100001 albums list.

Two crappy albums in a row...what the hell?

I don’t care enough about this album to even comment on it.

Man, I respect him, but I just do not “get” Nick Cave.

I did judge a book (album) by its cover (album art) but I was correct - it sounds like the album cover which is just simply not for me - I feel like if this wasn’t nick cave it would have been lost to the sands of time

According to several reviews folks claim this album is supposed to be borderline ulistenable and unenjoyable, that's the point. Alright...but it still fuggn sucks lmao

Mye rart her, men helt ok totalt sett. Er et eksperiment.

Nick Cave strikes again

Я не смогла это слушать, вообще не мое

Пост панк но не оч

Well, I guess i’m not a big fan of post punk

Tää levy oli aikamoista kakofoniaa. Sitä ei pelastanut edes Nick Cave. Enemmän kuin kuraa...

Petit côté the résidents Parfois c’est comme mal produit on entend rien J’aime bien l’ambiance de 6’´ gold blade Pareil pour Junkyard Je trouve ça pas nul non plus 5/10

Wow this is low fi! Difficult listen given the familiarity and quality of Nick Cave’s later work. Several Sins is really good but the rest was a bit of an ordeal!

Initially, I was surprised I hadn't heard of this band, considering it's from my homeland. I quickly realised it's because they're shit.

What the actual heck? I am leaving the party early and my Mom says we can no longer be friends ...

i went into this one wanting to be a contrarian enjoyer bc, as u can see, most people on here dont really like this album. unfortunately i thought it was just kinda fine and lowkey repetitive, also i dont respect nick cave so 🤷‍♂️

It's not available

This makes me think less of all of the Nick Cave albums I haven't gotten yet. Sorry but this album stinks like yesterday's diapers.

Seriously? What is this supposed to be? Made it to the 9th song and found better things to do. No redeeming qualities and straight to the Junkyard.

As a fam of Nick Cave, I am ashamed to admit that I had never listened to the Birthday Party. Until today that is. It was fun, it was the Cave we know form From Her to Eternity, but not quite yet. Now I am curious about the earlier Birthday Party work as well.

For however abrasive and noisy that it gets it does feel like a unique and interesting listen. Will not come back to it often though. 7/10 [KEEP]

It does feel like the album is aptly named. ★★★

I liked it. A few years ago I wouldn't have. Since I've been leaning into post punk the vocals, especially Nick Cave a likes that used to bother me, I now appreciate this quite a bit more. You can hear the influence this band has had on post-punk that followed it. In particular, Tropical F*ck Storm. Chaotic and noisy and all over the place. See that cat in the lower left hand corner of the album cover? That's how I felt at the end of hearing this.

You know, many of these last few items I may have been too gracious with; as I've forgotten them almost immediately after listening.

Todella surkea levy. Tällä kertaa ei pystynyt kuuntelemaan loppuun. 0,25/5.

y'all tripping, this is the best.

⭐ Punk/ experimental rock. Intressant att detta är vad Nick Cave kommer från. Det är väldigt krävande att lyssna på. Det är stökigt, skramligt och skevt och Nick Cave låter helt galen på sång. Plus för att albumet är kompromisslöst och att man kör sin grej in kaklet men det är utmattande att lyssna på och inte min grej så det blir en 1a. Bäst är Several sins

One good song. The rest was okay.

thanks website i think we can take a break from the nick cave now

Great fucking record. A perfect blend of garage rock The Cramps and post punk with Nick Caves screaming, howling and wailing actually creating a cohesiveness that orients the listener for the entire record. Release The Bats is a timeless song. Nick Cave is not for everyone but this record can’t be ignored. Live this was even better. Instantly and forever memorable. 5/5

Nick Cave is a talentless hack. I knew this was getting a 1 by the first song. I got about 5 songs in before I was done. This is genuinely one of the worst things I've ever listened to in my life holy fuck. This is probably the worst album art I have seen on 1001 so far and I'm at album #479 LMAO

Nick Cave's been introduced to me through this list, and so far I'm excited to hear his evolution, I was first given the double album by the Bad Seeds and not a second dragged on it. This one was a rather tough listen though, I've never been the biggest on blues or rockabilly sounds, but I certainly hear the vision here. Not the worst, and it's absolutely influential as far as I can tell, but I'll have a hard time coming back to it.

My partner in this project was surprised this is Nick Cave. I don't know who Nick Cave is so I can't be surprised yet, maybe later. For now I am just appalled.

I could only find the title track. And well…

I'd liked on of the songs before! Even though I thought I'd never heard of them. This rips, an antecedent to Viagra Boys.

Skipped this. Unlistenable.

😒 Fuck no

DNF'ed

Pre Listen: What the fuck is going on in the album cover. Looks like something I'd see on a wall in the greasiest pizza/burger restaurant in town, before eating the worst food ever. Slightly low expectations from the album cover alone. Notable Tracks: Blast Off - Heart sank progressively deeper every second the track played. Low expectations weren't low enough apparently. This is the kind of music a teenager plays to intentionally piss off their parents, and look back on with embarrassment. She's Hit - Skipped halfway through. This might be it. Dead Joe - Stopped listening to this about 20 seconds in. I've heard enough. The Dim Locater - Came back and listened to this one after taking a break. Quit listening about halfway through. Post Listen: Fastest 1 out of 5 to date. Might be the fastest for this whole project. This shit sounds like elementary schoolers got access to a recording studio. I know the band is doing it intentionally, because the lead singer keeps doing shitty voices and making shitty noises. The audio mixing is shit, the guitar work intentionally dirty and unpolished. It's an intentionally shit album, you'd be hard pressed to convince me otherwise, it's literally called "Junkyard". That's what this sort of punk-rock is, stylistically. Some people enjoy that kind of thing. I call them masochists. Not a great introduction to the esteemed Nick Cave. At least the album cover gives an accurate impression to the shitfest that is this album. 1/5.

this album was just not my dig but they did do a beatles tribute with blackbird which i thought was nice. the lead singer just needs to clear his throat and his vocals might pass

IT’S YOU!!! AND SO SOON!!! I actually have listened to very little of Nick Cave’s earlier works (generally a wild god/boatman’s call guy) so it’s nice to finally have a chance to hear his earlier more intense rock phase that he had with Birthday Party. His voice has always been so intense and expressive but it’s usually not pushed very far in his newer albums which are more typically more somber and reflective. With that said, I really wanted to give this a 5 based on my immense admiration for Cave, his life and his career, but there’s a reason The Birthday Party wasn’t a hit for its brief run. It just isn’t great. Nick Cave has better works so I don’t know why this made the list. It’s an intense, expressive, violent album (which was Birthday Party’s whole M.O.) so it did feel like a worthwhile listen, but that doesn’t mean I loved it. The instrumentals are so discordant and the sound mixing is so off-putting (TF was that “Dead Joe” thing) that I’m driven by subconscious forces to beg myself to stop listening. Somehow, I enjoyed it a decent amount all the same. A connecting thread for my 1 ratings is that they come from albums that are just plain boring. I’ve thought about moving Ramones down with Blonde on Blonde (which I think is my least favorite album so far) because it fits that mold of “doing what you’re okay at as safely as possible” that frustrated me so much. Junkyard does not bore me, and I did find myself glad that I listened to it, even if it may have been some masochistic amusement. This is bad, and though it probably was meant to be bad it doesn’t mean it should be rewarded for being bad. A few good/great tracks kept this from being a 1 though (love you “Blast Off”!) I want this album cover on a shirt ASAP.

Okay man this fucking sucked dude

This album is just a bunch of bullshit in mp3 form. Post-punk combined with industrial rock – the two worst genres of modern music. I knew it was going well when I found myself searching the "Lowest Rated Albums" stats within 20 seconds of starting the first track. And I wasn't disappointed. There's Junkyard by The Birthday Party, sitting at a cool 2.15-star average rating. The eighth-worst on the website. And damn well deserved. She's Hit approaches... something. The closest contact we have to genuinely listenable music. And yet it's still a pretty far cry from sanity. A half-listenable guitar line that indiscriminately increases and decreases its volume, coupled with a knock-off David Byrne bellowing empty lyrics like there's no tomorrow. And completely unlistenable drumming that picks random bars to get very suddenly louder and overdistorted. What's happening? My vision is going grey, as is any feelings of passion for what humanity has to offer. A brutal reminder that She's Hit is the best track on the album – according to listeners, at least. The entirely of Dead Joe sounds like Cookie Monster is getting a little too much pleasure from his cookies. Where's the explicit content warning? At least we have one chord being brutally slammed into the guitar over and over again for three minutes to distract us from Joe. The Dim Locator is actually pretty good if you imagine it sounding different to how it sounds. Take away all of the distortion, hire a better drummer, better guitarist, significantly better singer, and get some decent mixing and production... and there might be vestiges of listenable music here. I wonder if the purpose of this kind of music is purely for the beautiful "art" of people's reactions, rather than the music itself being art. Outsourcing all the effort to your listeners? Eh, why the heck not? It's genius. Several Sins is... okay, I guess. In the grand scheme of things, still absolutely unacceptable. After this point in the album I stopped giving any particular attention to the music. Tuning music out when it's already out of tune... in truth, surprisingly easy. Good thing they put in a second version of Dead Joe. Gotta make sure he's really dead. 1/5 Key tracks: none

The good news is that you don't have to listen to the entire album. If you've listened to the first 15 seconds of a song, then you heard the entire song. The bad news is that you have to listen to the songs at all. I have to chuckle at the fact that these guys are taking themselves seriously and probably high-fived each other like real bros at what they shat out.

The Nick Cave origin story. Interesting. Sounds kind of like raving lunatics who broke into a warehouse with instruments and just started wailing. In a good way! I like a little unhinged noise rock every now and again, and this was a good listen. Nick Cave lends a truly staggering performance to the backdrop of clangs, bangs, and occasionally disjointed grooves. It's not a casual listen, but when someone is howling Hamlet lines over a tune that sounds like it's being ripped through a decommissioned stump grinder, you kinda gotta pay attention. I can't claim to be a Nick Cave know it all, but I've enjoyed what I've heard in the past, and this adds some bedrock to his layers. 4/5.

I will never be a fan of the hooting and hollering genre of rock music. Very irritating

I almost could see how this was cool in the early 80s. Almost. But not quite.

absolutely not for me. had to stop after 2.5 songs

genau so nervig wie das cover. jaja dAs aLbUm iSt ExTrA sO. das macht es nicht besser. sei leise.

Sucks

This genre is usually right up my alley, which honestly made this more disappointing. Nothing here really impressed me. It mostly just sounded like run of the mill post punk without much to separate it from a bunch of other albums doing similar things. That’s probably the biggest problem with it. It’s not awful, it’s just there. The mood, the sound, the attitude, none of it felt distinct enough to make me care much. For something that should’ve been an easy win for me, this one was pretty forgettable.

Absolute garbage

This album really grew on me over time. The loud crashing started to sound really fun around the six song mark, and I liked how there was still a rhythm/flow to it rather than completely falling apart. There were also some interesting lyrics which I need to dig into more.

1.5 Been a while since I dished out a 1* so congrats. Absolute wank. Proper "I'm 14 and I'm edgy" energy. Just read the blurb - of course it's Nick Cave

Ridiculous that I originally only gave this a 3

Had no idea this was Nick Cave's early '80s band, and in general knew very little going into this album. But gosh, this was one of the most dilapidated, gritty, grating, rusty, and ugly releases from this list - in all the best ways. I love how strung out and miserable the whole thing feels, like an old tractor on its last legs; it has that very relentless industrial feel that is very reminiscent of a group like Big Black (especially on that big wobbly bass on 6" Gold Blade). But it also has that gothic, reverby feel sorta like a much noiser Joy Division, and the raked guitar chords on songs like the title track also give this thing an almost western flavor. But yeah, it's really the whole run-down gas station filled with lost, drunk souls vibe that hooked me. The song 'She's Hit', for example, sounds like it's being whipped by these machine-gun snare hits into continuing its aching, miserable trudge. This song and a few others give this album an almost sludge metal feel as well, 'Hamlet' especially. 'The Dim Locator' was also great, it had this rockabilly edge to it, but like it's being played out of a small radio speaker out of the basement of an old factory. It was also oddly catchy, and so was 'Several Sins' - love how sharp the guitars here sound and how earwormy that core melody is. Just a really enjoyable, dirty punk record - Nick Cave does this barked, edgy vocal style really well; it's much less elegant than his more bellowed and elegant delivery from his '90s stuff. And this album really lives up to its name; it really does sound like it was recorded in a junk yard, where the percussion is made of empty paint buckets and texture is added via some old, thrown-away horns that have seen much better days.

This album really is a Junkyard!

Cacophonous and brash. I enjoyed "Release The bats" from this era, but didn't enjoy this mess of an album.

1/5 Definitely an album I had to listen to before I died

There is nothing redeemable about this. It is a disgrace to music. I’m glad Nick Cave’s sound evolved, but it’s a shame our ears need to bleed for this. Awful, awful stuff.

I love Nick Cave but this is horrible!

Actual ragebaiting by the book to include this. Such a troll.

“She’s Hit” is a pleasant surprise. The other highlight, “Release the Bats,” wasn’t on the original release. Nick Cave is an artist that I’ll be getting to know better over the next 2 1/2 years. 5/10.

<sigh> This list and its capacity to surprise me after over 2 years and 850 albums. I mean, what the fuck is that? The music matches the cover art perfectly. It's utterly horrible. Apparently this was Nick Cave's band, but unless you have a particular interest in his specific backstory, you can safely die without subjecting yourself to this messy, screechy post-punk dirge.

Sorry, this is just a pain to listen to.

The worst album on here so far

ehhhh music itself not bad but their voice absolutely ruins it for me

At least it knows where it belongs.

eigentlich mag ich metal oder was das sein soll... ich würde sagen junkyard beschreibt es ganz gut... hab erst die hälfte aber kann schon sagen dass es mid ist

ka

I hate it. I have tried but I cannot stand Nick Cave in any incarnation.

My brief search found no way to listen to this album in Canada & the parts I *could* listen to sucked

lo borraron

This must be the worst album cover on this list! I don't usually like Nick Cave, but his singing was actually tolerable here. Interesting punk, that I didn't mind it so much.

The only part I liked was the silence between the songs. Just awful noise, I couldn’t even finish half the songs

22/1001 Junkyard - The Birthday Party (1982) When I was a kid I'd often buy a sour sweet called a "Toxic Waste". This album both sounds like some sort of synesthetic approximation of how the sweet would sound, and its album cover would not be out of place on the wrapper of one of these sweets. Starting with 'She's Hit' then going into the three tracks after is quite the bait and switch. The track list consists of a few milestones (opener, 'Several Sins', title track), and a path laden with unfriendly chaotic noise in-between. It's still accessible and listenable, not as sloppy or abrasive as other albums I've heard, but the production and vocals aren't shy about being challenging. Nick Cave's vocals complement this record in whichever way he's going for - e.g. it actually makes things sound better or even more grimy and disgusting. I'm generally not shy about not "getting" albums that it's clear others do, and I don't think I feel the same way about this as the fans, but I didn't hate it; I felt the way I think the group wanted me to feel. It was interesting to hear Nick from before he became the wise elder of rock, and I can definitively say if there one thing the album does well - it's that it captures the feeling of living in England and hating every moment pretty well. ★★★

Horrible

Bloody miserable way to spend three quarters of an hour. Like a less-accessible, deliberately-obtuse, antipodean Tom Waits having a mad one. The band obviously know what they're doing but it's still a fackin' ghoulish, atonal, speed-bender of a racket. Not for me, thanks.

why

This album went nowhere. It was trash.

🎧Oh this is Nick Cave’s first band, must be why I hate it. This sucks.

I didn’t like it, but I thought I would hate it more. Stand-outs - She’s Hit - Several Sins

Like a rockabilly mix of Bahaus and PIL without the ideas or talents of either. Other than a couple of decent tracks sounded like a ramshackle band playing for the first time

Listening session: april 26th, while getting ready in the morning and while going for a walk Listened to before: no Thoughts: this was just too noisy for me to enjoy. Only after listening I discovered that Nick Cave was in this band, but that was nog enough to improve my score Favourite track: Hamlet (Pow Pow Pow)

Saw a documentary about these goons and they were nuts. 5 STARS F the h8ers

Utterly chaotic. I vastly prefer deranged, anarchic Nick Cave to sad, contemplative Nick Cave and it’s pretty remarkable to listen to this and discover just how many artists were clearly taking direct influence.

This album sounds exactly like the cover looks. That’s the only reason is gets a star.

The Good: It’s a birthday party! The Bad: Held at a junkyard… The Ugly: Getting bitten by the dog… Noise, for the sake of noise, is just noise… Experimental, for the sake of experiment, is just posing… Nick Cave get’s too much credit… Shit 1*