Creswell, noted that the band "struggled with creating their own identity some of them also began indulging an appetite for alcohol and heroin". Cave was embarrassed by "Zoo Music Girl" but noted "we were digging for something and we kind of just found it with some songs" and cited "King Ink" as an example of "a certain kind of sound that we wanted to work with on records after that". Eight of the eleven tracks on Prayers on Fire were written or co-written by Cave, "[it] was a kind of reaction to the major disappointments we felt when we went to England... [we] began to see a vision and I don't think we were positively influenced ... we didn't want to be like the English New Wave pop groups of the time". Pew observed "[it] stinks, quite honestly ... The engineer slept through the entire session for a start". Reception About.com's Anthony Carew felt Prayers on Fire was able to "capture the qualities of their infamous live-shows on record ... the evocatively-produced set dared dress key cuts in blaring brass; giving a sense of perverted-cabaret to their mordant racket, turning Cave from nihilist, self-destructive savant to theatrical, flamboyant showman". AllMusic's Greg Maurer found "a fascination with the dark, (self-)destructive side of religion is more than evident in his later work... While there might not be any of the explicit Biblical imagery on [the album] that Cave would later ejaculate, the title ... is apt". Ian McFarlane stated it showed the band was "irrevocably and unashamedly changing for the better, being more aggressive than anything they had ever recorded". SoundStageDirect described it as "a creepy carnival of tribal rhythms, wonky discordance and garbled surrealism". Music critic Ed St John summarised, "this is an expression which ebbs out beyond the confines of proficiently played music ... [it] is akin to watching a film of Jackson Pollock painting or listening to Dylan Thomas in full alcoholic flight". The track "Ho-Ho" is featured in the 2004 German film, Head-On. Accolades Track listing Personnel The Birthday Party members Nick Cave – lead vocals, piano (track 7), saxophone (track 9), drums (track 11) Rowland S. Howard – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals (track 5), saxophone (track 11) Mick Harvey – organ, piano, guitar, snare drum (track 7), Tracy Pew – bass guitar, clarinet (track 8), double bass (track 9) Phill Calvert – drums Equal Local members