Hits

When The Birthday Party speaks of "hits," the band doesn't mean radio-friendly charting singles. It means songs that attack the bull's-eye of sound. As Australia-to-England's most extreme group, The Birthday Party—which featured singer Nick Cave—redefined the boundaries of rock 'n' roll, taking on a rhythmic shift that slid from tribal power to Captain Beefheartian assaults where the only one holding down the fort was bassist Tracey Pew. Starting with the band's first material released as The Birthday Party, following through the highlights of Prayers on Fire and Junkyard and finishing with The Bad Seed and Mutiny EPs, Hits is an excellent overview of one of the first bona fide underground, anti-commercial groups of the post-punk movement. There's nothing quite like the anarchic crashing of "Zoo Music Girl," "Release the Bats," "She's Hit," "Big Jesus Trash Can," or "Sonny's Burning." Guitarists Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard were an unusual pair, often playing against one another as much as with each other. Hits is truly brilliant and awe-inspiring.