Prayers On Fire
by The Birthday Party
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The Birthday Party bestography
Prayers On Fire is ranked 2nd best out of 12 albums by The Birthday Party on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by The Birthday Party is Junkyard which is ranked number 3654 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 407.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to Prayers On Fire on YouTube
Prayers On Fire track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 78 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Prayers On Fire rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 3 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 |  Purplepash | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 81/100 | 4 |
| 2026 |  Wasinski | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 28/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | cicadelic | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 61/100 | 2 |
| 2026 |  videoheadcleaner | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 23/100 | 4 |
| 2026 | xhitmanx | Top 23 Music Albums of 1981 | 18/23 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Patman360 | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 61/100 | 2 |
| 2026 | martintho | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 35/100 | 13 |
| 2026 | Juneof44 | Top 50 Music Albums of 1981 | 37/50 | 1 |
| 2026 | Exist-en-ciel | Top 100 Music Albums of 1981 | 86/100 | 1 |
| 2026 | Johnnyo | Greatest Goth Albums (1 - 100) by Ultimate Record Collection | 3/100 | - |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 103 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 299 | |||
Prayers On Fire collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 29 members
Prayers On Fire ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 104 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/18/2026 12:13 |  RasmV | 2,614 | 73/100 |
| ! | 07/23/2026 23:17 | xhitmanx | 1,604 | 75/100 |
| ! | 05/03/2026 09:38 | platus | 5,882 | 74/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album has a Bayesian average rating of 72.1/100, a mean average of 70.9/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 72.1/100. The standard deviation for this album is 19.3.
Prayers On Fire favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 11 members
Prayers On Fire forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 07/02/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5361): By deadhouse
Repo 01/07/2022 14:01 in Rank 'Em: The Beach Boys Purplepash 08/17/2021 09:49 in What album are you listening to right now?Prayers On Fire comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
timtooky 03/29/2014 11:23 | #107971 | TOP COMMENT
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a bulky and pesky record. i cannot listen to it without getting anxious. it triggers in me the desire to throw something out of the window. (Edited)
drstuey 03/31/2021 06:02 | #268003 | TOP COMMENT
Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.
Incredibly as a big Nick Cave fan since 1988, this is the first time I have listened to it. I was surprised with the music, I was expecting it to just be searing punk but it was a lot more interesting than that. Sounds quite improvisational with all sorts of genres and styles. Cave's vocal performance was everything that I expected though, raw, powerful and compelling. That's not to say that I want to listen to it again any time soon though. 'Dull Day' and 'Nick the Stripper' caught my ear. (Edited)
Very intense, requires a certain taste to like.
Best Tracks: Kathy's Kisses, Ho Ho
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