The Birthday Party (The Birthday Party album)

The Birthday Party
Studio album by The Boys Next Door / The Birthday Party
Released	November 1980
Recorded	Richmond Recorders, Melbourne July 1979, January-February 1980
Genre	Post-punk
Length	32:00
Label	Missing Link Records CBS Records 4AD
Producer	The Boys Next Door, Tony Cohen, Keith Glass
The Boys Next Door / The Birthday Party chronology
Hee Haw (EP) (1979) The Birthday Party (1980) Prayers on Fire (1981)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]

The Birthday Party is a 1980 album by Australian rock band The Boys Next Door (later reissued under the band name The Birthday Party). The album was produced by The Boys Next Door, Tony Cohen, and Keith Glass; it was recorded with Cohen engineering at Richmond Recorders Studios in Melbourne from July 1979 to February 1980.^[2]

The album was a vast difference from the new-wave pop-punk stylings of their debut Door, Door (released the year earlier), moving towards the dark and chaotic post punk style they would later become known for (as The Birthday Party). This album was both the final album by The Boys Next Door and the first full-length release by The Birthday Party. In its original release, it was credited to both, but on its first reissue, it was credited to The Birthday Party.

The album in its entirety has been reissued on CD as part of the Hee Haw compilation along with the Hee Haw EP.

While recording for the song "Mr. Clarinet," bassist Tracy Pew was absent from the actual recording session, so after the band members left, Pew recorded his part alone. Two of the album's songs, "The Red Clock" and "The Hair Shirt," the former sung by Rowland S. Howard, were originally included on the Hee Haw EP, released in 1979 when the Birthday Party were still known as Boys Next Door.

Track listing

All tracks written by Nick Cave, unless otherwise noted.

References