Here are Pyfr’s basic beliefs about Nevermind, specifically its place in music history and its accomplishments.
The success of Nirvana’s second album had as much to do with the state of the music industry then as it did with Kurt Cobain and the songs he wrote. Despite the tendency of many to place Nevermind and the movement it spearheaded outside the context of early 90’s music, it was really more an outgrowth of the then-existing metal movement than it was a revival of punk. My friends and I weren’t really into punk at the time, and we had no problem welcoming Nirvana (and the even more metal-influenced Alice In Chains and Soundgarden) into our listening habits once Smells Like Teen Spirit introduced the Seattle scene to the majority of the universe. In fact, I still to this day believe that grunge was really just an attempt to revitalize metal after the Warrants and Poisons had rendered it unrespectable (if that's even a word).
Kurt Cobain himself once stated that Nevermind sounded more like a Motley Crue album than a punk record, and there’s a lot of truth to that. Cobain may have been championing the punk ethos, but the scene had changed dramatically from the mid 1970’s to the early 1990’s. Music technology, production values, songwriting, society’s attitudes toward rock music in general- these things were much altered from the days of The Sex Pistols and The Ramones, and no one, not even the mighty Kurt, could do anything about that. Essentially, I do not regard Nirvana (or grunge in general) as the successor of punk, simply because I don’t think the circumstances allow for anyone to fill that role (if you regard punk and grunge as counter-genres, then you have to acknowledge that they were squaring off against two forms of music that could hardly be more different- those being the overly intellectualized prog-rock field and the smart-as-a-cracking-cinderblock realm of spandex metal). I’d even argue that rap has proved more revolutionary than grunge ever could, though I contend that hip-hop has also become a fat and bloated money cow that no longer has anything original to say.
Now that we’ve got the punk thing out of the way, what Nirvana did manage to do was inject a lot of energy back into heavy rock music, which had become formulaic, overly image-conscious, and absolutely crowded with hordes of Stepford pansies. Kurt neither growled nor wailed in an operatic way, and his lyrics generally avoided death and sex, which were the primary fixations of rock musicians at the turn of the decade. Nirvana was similar enough to heavy metal (in terms of bombastic power chords, aggressive rhythms, and a massive production) to make it instantly acceptable to hard rock fans, yet different enough (with cryptic lyrics, a very un-metal image, and a poppy melodicism more rooted in the college rock scene than the headbanger tank) to make it stand out. I readily admit to being as swept up by Smells Like Teen Spirit as the next guy the first time I heard it.
Much of Nevermind’s appeal, I think, was rooted in its emphasis on things that were currently receiving less attention in the songs of others. Dave Grohl’s drumming is a major player in the sound instead of just another horse in the cavalry charge (or, as the drums frequently were in the songs of cock rockers, a boring thud to which the singer would hump the microphone stand). Kurt, instead of trying to amaze the listener with his agility on guitar, simply used his instrument to create a gigantic wall of sound. And then there’s his voice, the thing that really set them apart from others- that unique and raspy wail that somehow sounded both vulnerable and intense. There was little of the machismo in Cobain’s approach that one found in Metallica or Pantera, but the power was still apparent.
I won’t try to convince either you or myself that Nevermind works from start to finish. After the pummeling we receive at the hands of Teen Spirit (allegedly named after the favorite deodorant of former girlfriend Tobi Vail), the bashing yet friendly In Bloom, the darkly moody Come As You Are, the fiercely driving Breed, the schizophrenically catchy Lithium, and the disturbing sedateness of the rape tale Polly, things get a mite untidy. Maybe you disagree, but I’ve always felt that the fuzzy blaster Territorial Pissings marks the beginning of the album’s unevenness, a fault that carries through for the remainder of Nevermind. Other than the kinda darkish Lounge Act and the haunting album ender Something In The Way, the last half of the ball game is, comparatively speaking, something of a snoozer. Neither Drain You, On A Plain, nor Stay Away find Kurt and the boys introducing any new tricks to the operation. The hidden track is awfully weird, though.
I’m not a believer in the infallible power of Kurt Cobain. His lyrics to me often reek of the last minute scramble to find words with the requisite number of syllables (a mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido wins the award for rock music’s most senseless sentence ever), his guitar playing wasn’t terribly original (detractors have long pointed out the similarities between Teen Spirit and the chorus of Boston’s More Than A Feeling, while everybody knows that Come As You Are was “borrowed” from Killing Joke), and his power wanes exponentially the farther one wanders from his more inspired moments. He was a whiner, a prick (I’ll never find it in my heart to feel sorry for a world-famous millionaire who left an infant daughter behind because he couldn’t cope with drugs and the pressures of being a celebrity), and an unworthy recipient of the exalted status that’s often bestowed upon him (I for one do not regard him as my generation’s spokesman, mainly because he didn’t seem have a clear or coherent opinion on anything in particular). Still, Nevermind remains a compelling and powerful album, full of melody and a fury that signifies very little but still sounds great and almost convincing.
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