Proving again that Nick Cave has one hell of a knack for opening tracks, “Tupelo” is one of the most perfect representations of this early era of the Bad Seeds (and also serves as an important reminder that Nick Cave is rarely “Nick Cave the solo artiste” — the music for “Tupelo” is credited to Adamson and Harvey alone). Cave’s lyrics are a masterstroke, though, exchanging apocalyptic religious iconography and references to Elvis Presley’s birth (and the stillbirth of his twin brother, Jesse). Throughout the rest of the album, the transformation that has occurred since From Her To Eternity (released just one year earlier) is quite shocking.

Cave’s lyrical preoccupations have shifted even more to themes drawn from the blues, but here he seems to have brought the rest of the band along with him. From the slide guitar and twang of the suicide song “Say Goodbye To The Little Girl Tree” to the molasses swing of “Knockin’ On Joe” to the two-step of “Train Long-Suffering,” the Bad Seeds prove themselves to be an increasingly malleable instrumental force, equally capable of sparseness and restraint as they were comfortable with hulking menace and swift-fingered attack on From Her To Eternity.

The cover of Bob Dylan’s “Wanted Man” (though most famous for having been performed by Johnny Cash on his landmark At San Quentin live album) is a particular highlight, not just for how it shows the Bad Seeds to have a deft hand with covers (a fact quite germane to the next item in their discography), but for how well the band adapts their skronky, percussion-heavy twitch to suit the song’s theme and historical lineage.

The Firstborn Is Dead is notable for being the most full-throated, album-long embrace of the blues that the Bad Seeds would ever produce. As such, it thrums with a resonant, Dust Bowl atmosphere, but with the entire album so relentlessly focused on its hard luck stories and sepia-hued themes, it occasionally comes across as a bit forced, and almost kitschy. The diffusion of that aesthetic unity on Kicking Against The Pricks would therefore be a welcome opening-up of the band’s sound, though the album as a whole is less accomplished. The Firstborn Is Dead remains fascinating for how little it represents a stepping stone to anything else that followed, except perhaps — and only at the margins — Henry’s Dream. In that sense, the thunder and rain that bookmark “Tupelo” might as well have enshrouded the entire album in its own self-contained world.