The Firstborn Is Dead

by

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

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Has an album ever had a more exploding `super nova'-like opening song than Nick Cave's second album "The firstborn is dead"?

"Tupelo" is a Godfearing, thundering preach about a lovelorn town that one could find easily in one of the old-testament books. Or could it even exist as a town-soon-to-die in "The revelation of John"?

Nick howls and whispers, both with the same ease, and the Bad Seeds are everlasting present with backing vocals and an extremely well performed musical sideshow.

After the rage comes the quietness. And this moment of quietness and contemplation comes in the form of "Say goodbye to the little girl tree". Tender, joyful and still as sharp as the guitar strings Blixa Bargeld is tipping on.

But as soon as the last notes have floated away, the Bad Seeds accelerate again, whilst Nick is going "Woohoo-hoo!", impersonating the locomotive that carries the pounding song "Train long-suffering".

"Knockin' on Joe" sets the tone for the following album "Your funeral, my trial", giving the audience the feeling they're listening to something old, older at least, not from 1985 when "Firstborn..." was released, but of something further away in time, yet still, or perhaps therefor: timeless.

Also worth mentionning is the Dylan cover "Wanted man", and Nick Cave simply hits the bull's eye with this one, making it totally his own and giving it a tension that remains unbreakable until the last notes.

This album has no weak spots, only good songs and better ones. And one of the most original outputs here is "The six strings that drew blood". Cool, minimal and understated guitar fiddeling, nonchalant whisteling, mesmerising singing, and a surreal story unfolding with every casually dropped line.

Of the early Bad Seeds albums, this one is by far the most memorable, being a carefully build bridge between the experimental and the lyrical.

Smokey, smoking, mystifying. Music to slowly die by.