The Boys Next Door
Door, Door

THE REVIEW

Well, yes, this discreet little disc released in 1979 represents the LP debut of Nick Cave, one of the most famous Australian musicians ever, but don't expect anything similar to what he did with the Birthday Party or later as a solo artist.

It seems that despite their ironically reassuring name, the five from Melbourne were rather mischievous: drugs, alcohol, brawls with the audience at concerts, and various run-ins with the law. The unruly life they led was reflected in the music they offered live, a graceless and violent post-punk, but as often happens, when it came time to record (due to the producer assigned to them or inexperience), a practically pop record came out. Many, for better or worse, are the analogies between "Door, Door" and the contemporaneous debut of the Cure "Three Imaginary Boys," both lively yet not very incisive, spontaneous but also naive, both with a sound still lacking a personal touch and with a promising but still unripe voice.

Like the English group, the Boys Next Door would do much better the following year, but what they leave us with in this effort is an energetic and catchy pop-punk that seems a bit too "normal" to arouse real interest, despite attempts to enrich the sound with sax and synth. What pass by without leaving much of a mark on memory are the urgent and melodic "The Nightwatchman," "Roman Roman," "Brave Exhibitions," "The Voice" and the more romantic and slow "Friends Of My World," while "Somebody's Watching" manages to stand out from the others thanks to a particularly expressive and successful vocal performance and good guitar inserts (even if the sixties-style background vocals could have been spared).
Fortunately, in the second part, we witness slightly more "over the top" episodes like "After A Fashion" which features a good interplay between a pulsating bass and brief rhythm section riffs, "Dive Position" built on a drunken piano loop with Cave finally using his voice in a less conventional way, and "I Mistake Myself" benefiting from a "classically" wave guitar. However, in closing, the ballad "Shivers" unfortunately turns out to be a tad sappy.

In the end, a narrow passing grade for a record that is pleasant to listen to but certainly not essential. Nevertheless, a few months later the band would change their name to Birthday Party, and from there it would be a whole different story.