Nick Cave

The Firstborn Is Dead (recorded in late 1984) was described as "the most evocative blues record for years" (Sounds). "I could listen to very little other contemporary stuff near this as it'd seem facile and silly", opined Zigzag. "Sordid, predictable, sickening and quite indispensable", offered Melody Maker. NME deemed it "wilfully messy and unfocused", while City Limits called it "flawed but formidable". "It's all pretty intense, I can tell you", reckoned Smash Hits, "but strangely fascinating too."

Cave himself had recently moved to Berlin. "I'm not really sure why, but it seems to offer just about everything that London doesn't", he told Melody Maker. "The people there have drive and imagination and spirit." These are qualities the album certainly possesses in droves, while Cave's musical associates overflow with them. Inventively accompanying Cave's voice and harmonica are the matchless and loyal Mick Harvey on piano, drums, guitar, organ, bass and backing vocals; the enduring legend that is Barry Adamson on bass, guitar, organ, drums and backing vocals; and the true one-off Blixa Bargeld on guitar and backing vocals. Heroes to a man, asked for his own at the time, Cave listed, "Cap'n Ahab, Raskolnikov and Roberto Duran."

Each deluxe double-disc collectors edition contains the remastered stereo album, the new surround mix (5.1 dvd), a specially commissioned short film made by acclaimed UK artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard plus the b-sides from the singles and exclusive sleeve notes.