headlessparrot's Full Review: Bleach by Nirvana (USA)
I’d like to consider myself a bit of a music historian, in addition to be a child of the nineties. And it’s for that reason that I get upset when people do one of two things. The first is dismissing the effect that Nirvana had on rock and popular music and general. The second may very well be even worse, though. Believe it or not, there are people out there today who don’t realize that Nevermind was the group’s second album - that, yes, something did come before the supposed greatest album of the nineties (for the record, I’ll take In Utero any day of the week, and I always will). Both of these things frustrate me to no end, because not only do they show a tremendous amount of ignorance about a band that shaped American culture (and still is shaping it for that matter), but they also they make people sound silly. Because not only did Nirvana release a record before Nevermind, it’s just as much of a masterpiece as the record that came after it - albeit it a much harsher, less organized and less sprawling one.
Look around today and you can still see, feel and hear the after effects of the so-called grunge revolution that took over the airways in the early nineties, led by who else but Nirvana. Go to a thrift shop anywhere within fifty miles of your home, and you’ll likely stumble onto an enormous pile of flannel shirts, remnants of a generation past. Turn on your radio for ten minutes, and there’s no doubt that you’ll hear more than a few bands who obviously spent the formative years of their lives listening to Nevermind on a Walkman while they should have been doing homework. There’s a whole glut of bands that would like to think of themselves as Nirvana 2.0, but just like the current crop of pop-punk bands has, they’ve missed the point entirely. Nirvana was a great band for several reasons. It wasn’t all about the simple guitar riffs used to create catchy melodies, low, dirty production values and complaining. Nirvana was much more than that. Sure, their songs were very structurally bare bones, and they were certainly disenfranchised about something or other, but strip away all the layers of aggression and you get a genuinely talented band fronted by a talented lyricist who would literally spend days working on arrangements and lyrics. Kurt Cobain was a man who was not concerned solely with making loud, angry music. This was a man who loved the Beatles as much as he loved the Sex Pistols, and it shows through in his music. In other words, unlike so many other artists out there who are rehashing the “grunge” sound, Kurt Cobain was as interested in writing a good pop song with a good hook as he was appealing to the disenfranchised youth of America. Most of the bands today (see Puddle Of Mudd for a prime example) try to make up for poor song writing and a lack of hooks by turning up the angst-meter and making a desperate cry for love. Of course, there’s something else that separates these groups - and that’s that Nirvana was never afraid to roll around in the mud and get dirty, something that Puddle Of Mudd and their ilk have never been able to do (which is rather ironic, given their band name). And Bleach, Nirvana’s debut album is a prime example of Cobain and company combining great pop lyricism with ferocity, energy and the willingness to get down and dirty.
Good or bad, you can still feel the repercussions of Nirvana’s reign over music today, which is why it frustrates me when people tell me how bad they were and how little of anything changed when Kurt put a bullet through his head back in April of 1994. Because that’s not true. Nirvana instituted all sorts of reforms into pop music, many of which are still lived by today. Their do-it-yourself punk ethos can still be felt through the bare bones rock of groups like the White Stripes, and there are definitely a few bands out there that have managed to be influenced by Nirvana while still creating their own unique music. Formed in 1987 in the backwater redneck breeding ground of Aberdeen, Washington by Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. The duo went through dozens of name changes while they searched for a drummer who could back them permanently. Dale Crover of the Melvins would sit in frequently behind the drums, but it wasn’t until 1987 that Chad Channing became the band’s official third member - and it was at this point that the name Nirvana was chosen. Though Channing would end up departing before Nirvana’s breakthrough into the subconscious of American pop culture, replaced eventually by Dave Grohl, Channing did serve as the drummer on the group’s first record and on their first tour - much to the dismay of Kurt Cobain, who would often end up destroying Channing’s drums due to what Cobain saw poor drumming.
At some point signing to Sub Pop labels based in Seattle (a record label that will remain forever infamous solely because Nirvana was once amongst their ranks) and released a single for the band’s rendition of Shocking Blue’s Love Buzz - a single that went over so well, many people don’t even realize that the cut is a cover song. The relative success of Love Buzz allowed Kurt, Krist and Chad to go into the studio and record their full-length debut. $606.17 has since become a magic number in Nirvana folklore, the exact cost to go into Reciprocal Recording and cut the album for Butch Vig - and a number that the band gleefully slips into the otherwise sparse liner notes as if it represents a marker of their credibility as punk rockers. But ironically, Kurt didn’t even have that much money, and had to convince Jason Everman, a friend of the band to donate the money, which he had earned from frequent fishing trips to Alaska. Interestingly enough, Everman never got his money back - but he did get his name in the record’s credits as an additional guitarist, despite never playing a note on the album. He would officially become a member for a short time to help fill out the sound, but left before Nevermind when he became disillusioned with the attitude of Kurt Cobain (he would also become a member of Soundgarden at one point, but left them too, before they hit it big… the poor bastard).
The magic number of $606.17 sounds like a steal after you’ve listened to Bleach a few times. It’s appropriate that the name of the album was derived from heroin junkies who used the substance to clean their needles, because this is a record that is absolutely down and dirty, a swirling mess of noise and melody that seems to make sense at times while being a total mass of confusing at others. The sound quality isn’t superb (you get what you pay for, I suppose), but it adds to the overall vibe of the record. While Kurt’s song writing still had a long way to go at this point, his talent becomes painfully obvious early on in Bleach. His prose is simple, but at the same time very well thought out and very poetic. The outer simplicity belies a more significant meaning, as Cobain wraps his meaning into all manner of wild and confusing symbolism, rarely. There are some definite slices of pure, unadulterated pop song writing here as well, which come as a surprise, with the lyrics hidden under all manner of volatile, scorching guitars. Cobain’s wail is an infamous one, and it’s used here even more than on either of Nirvana’s other two records. It reaches a high pitch before cracking, and it warbles to a point where it sounds as if the frontman is in a tremendous amount of pain.
Aside from Kurt’s vocals, the instrumentation is nearly as simple as possible. Overdubs are the exception rather than the rule, so Bleach is essentially made up of thirteen tracks recorded live in the studio and then mixed down. Chad Channing’s extremely basic approach on the drums provides a very loud, very simple backing for the rest of the music. His bass and snare drums virtually overpower everything else on the record, making sure that everyone else stays at a reasonable tempo. Cobain’s guitars are searing, loud, and angry. They blend intermittent bursts of feedback with a steady level of overdrive that borders on the extreme. But between the almost overpowering stretches of unrecognizable guitar work are some beautiful, powerful melodies that really carry this set of songs, creating a sort-of swirling mess of bleeding guitars and rudimentary structure - complete with the occasional missed note and burst of unintelligible distortion. Krist’s bass work is pushed somewhat back in the mix, making it hard to pick up, but it’s definitely there, thumping alongside the drums in vain trying to keep Cobain’s guitars tight. The bass thumps a simple rhythm, but that’s pretty much it. The bass isn’t like another guitar here, it’s just another tool for keeping time, and it does it’s job well, blending with Kurt’s to create a thick soup of guitars. If nothing else, this instrumental approach guarantees that Bleach be the most abrasive Nirvana record, which it is by far. The combination of the vocals with Cobain’s swirling, distorted guitars, Noveselic’s driving bassline and Channing’s thundering yet rudimentary drums are truly a bloodletting experience for Kurt, something that you can feel almost overpoweringly. Bleach is very much a difficult record to listen to at times - especially in comparison to it’s more radio friendly brethren - but it’s also a very good record, and the band’s aggression and the overdriven guitar passages are very much an integral part of this album.
Blew begins the record with Novoselic playing a simple repeated bass riff unaccompanied by any other instruments. At about seven seconds, a squeal of guitar feedback segues into Cobain’s overdriven, virtually undistinguishable mess of guitar and Channing’s thumping drums. Cobain sings in a slurred, sneering manner during the verses before employing his standard, shaky and gravely voice during the chorus and bridge. The lyrics are simple, consisting of only one verse and a chorus, followed by Cobain repeatedly screaming “You could do anything,” over and over into the microphone with a sense of urgency. Floyd The Barber begins with another burst of static-y feedback, followed by a chunky basic rhythm that eventually works into a mid tempo punk-style track. The lyrics start out simple and upbeat, but as the song goes on, Kurt’s twisted mind transforms the scenario into a twisted mess of violence and pain, which is especially significant because this was one of the first songs that Kurt ever wrote and is perhaps a marker of his demented sense of humour.
Most people recognize About A Girl from the MTV Unplugged Sessions, the only song taken from Bleach. About A Girl, written about one of Cobain’s girlfriends who kicked him out of her apartment, may very well be the first of many classic pop song in the Nirvana catalogue, helped along by a catchy melody and simple guitar work. I prefer the acoustic version, but it’s quite good here as well. The soft, laidback, almost jangly guitar in the verses provide a respite from the assault on the senses of the last two songs, before it descends into a more distorted and overdriven variation of the same riff. School is a heavy, washed-out track with Kurt repeating the same lyric over and over again as if it’s a mantra.
The pulsing bass of Love Buzz is really the symbolic beginning of the Nirvana legend - the first single they ever released, and an amazing cover that Kurt, Krist and Chad put their own unique stamp on. A basic three-chord structure backs the vocals, which gradually descend into wails over seemingly random squeals of feedback and static. Negative Creep, meanwhile starts with a chugging, almost heavy metal intro, before the whole band just falls into a barrage of wall-to-wall noise, accompanied by Cobain’s stream of consciousness, seemingly strung together vocals, screaming and swirling every which way. It certainly isn’t the best song on the disc, but the passion and pure energy that the band displays is a marker of things to come.
Scoff is most for it’s drum intro and basic tempo that seem to owe a lot to the Knack’s My Sharona (and anyone who follows Cobain knows that this likely isn’t a coincidence, as he felt that Get The Knack was one of the greatest pop albums of all time). Mr. Moustache, accompanied by a comic strip that Kurt drew (which can be seen in Journals) is a fast-paced attack on the idea of the stereotypical idea of a macho male, which Kurt sings with urgency, bitterness and an almost dull longing for acceptance. Big Cheese, written about Jonathon Poneman, Nirvana’s boss at Sub Pop, and not added until Geffen re-released Bleach, is filled with a couple of different tempo changes, a surprise considering the simplicity of most of the group’s material. The vocals are drenched in anger aimed towards Poneman, and the lead guitar passage sounds incredible shaded with just enough overdrive to give it some heaviness. Downer closes Bleach, another song that begins with a repeated bass riff before the rest of the band joins in. The verses are accompanied only by this bassline as Kurt rants in a fast-paced speech-song, a very tongue-in-cheek political piece that’s filled with sarcasm and playfulness - another indicator of Kurt’s general attitude and things to come.
Bleach certainly isn’t Nirvana’s best record. Hell, it’s probably their worst studio recording - but that’s not saying much, because Kurt’s remarkable lyrical flair and knack for effective musical arrangements still shines through brightly on every single Nirvana release. The raw, unchecked energy, anger and passion were not only signs of things to come, but helped to create a raw, abrasive album that no doubt has it’s roots in punk rock. Don’t be fooled by how nonchalant some of these tracks sound, because a lot went into them. Kurt Cobain is the kind of person who wrote and rewrote lyrics and melodies until they are just right, and the raw approach here is exactly what he wanted. It’s effective, loud, but it’s also melodic and filled with some of the early examples of Cobain’s song writing talent. Nothing sticks out like Heart-Shaped Box or Polly, but it doesn’t really need to because the album flows so well. Bleach, like its namesake, is a cleanser. The only difference is that this recording served as an emotional cleansing for Kurt and for anyone who listens to it. To just behold the raw, untapped talent on Bleach is remarkable. This is a snapshot of a band that knew what they wanted and knew exactly how they were going to get it. Some will definitely be turned off by the loudness, the coarseness and the torrents of untamed feedback, but knowing what Cobain often aimed for, I suspect that’s the point.
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