terminator_cat's Full Review: MTV Unplugged in New York by Nirvana (US)
Welcome to the nineties, or should I say early nineties, where something has changed the state of rock. Nirvana have brought the state of mainstream away from hair metal into grunge, a genre which usually refers to the Seattle scene back in 1991 – 1994. due to the success of their first album Nevermind, and the single Smells Like Teen Spirit, they are now sitting in the stardom. but the album did more than just become successful, it triggered a whole new movement in the musical industry. Pearl Jam, another Seattle band are making themselves known well with their anthemic debut Ten, outside of Seattle bands like the Smashing Pumpkins are gaining their share of the spot light too. Then forward another year to 1993 where Nirvana follow up Nevermind with their third release, In Utero, then a year later the grunge scene implodes when Cobain commits suicide.
during Nirvana’s career they released 3 full length albums, one rarities collection, and two live albums. the essentials are Nevermind (even though I’m starting to think it’s a little over rated), In Utero, and Live Unplugged In New York. don’t get me wrong though, From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah was cool, not to mention that Incesticide is incredibly cool, and even the bands debut Bleach I find to be quite enjoyable. But those albums considered classics are shoved in your face with their consistently, and basically everything which makes a five star CD . well I had access to the three studio albums because of my family members but my obsessive compulsive Nirvana friend liked to talk about “Unplugged” a lot, and thanks to bargain bins I now have it.
Nirvana Members
Kurt Cobain – Vocals
Chris Novoselic – Bass
Dave Grohl – Drums
Pat Smear - extra guitarist (appeared towards the end of the bands career for live performances, like this)
In sense this album stands for everything Kurt Cobain disliked about music, he held a huge dislike for MTV, and they are the people that ran the show. many would see this as a chance to make money. Yet despite “wannabe angry rocker” people having attitudes towards anything that plays pop, you have to remember that in terms of discovering great bands MTV does that, just think that in most countries with a consistent TV watching population this is just as important as radio. Sure it doesn’t play everything you want it to, and trashes a lot of good songs, yet without it the music scene wouldn’t be much better at all. Still, this album also stood for what Kurt Cobain wanted to do too, he had a fascination with the acoustics of R.E.M., and this supplied him with a chance to show these off sort of influences. It also showed a window almost of what could of happened if he didn’t shoot himself, in the lost interview he said that he wanted to become a solo artist like Johnny Cash. most artists when they embark on a solo career tend to stray into the land of acoustics mixed with their old roots like Chris Cornell on his solo album Euphoria Morning.
Bleach was a fuzz ball of distortion and amplified feed back, but had one track which wasn’t so loud and distorted it damaged your ear drums. About a Girl gives us the perfect opener and to an extent sounds better than the original version with its mellower context and the extraction of the pounding drums. Come as You Are, today is a song that still gets heavy play and it’s almost as classic as Smells Like Teen Spirit. it seems to adapt to the environment without losing some of the darkness welded into the lyrics and they lyrics stand out for being some of the best Cobain has written. Nirvana’s mixture of rock and pop may be something that some might not like to admit, yet in the Nevermind adaptation catalogue On a Plain stands out as being a true gem with its hooks in both recordings. there are a few things that were in the original which made it sound better and the lyrics don’t make the most sense when you listen closely ,but still, this is still a grand moment.
In Utero despite its under produced feeling seems to presented fine on here, there are tracks which while do feature distortion are perfect as being acoustic, I’m only referring to All Apologies basically. in a way it’s the most important track on the disc, not to mention its an epic closer for its original album. even here it seems like a closer despite being the second to last track (which I think of as an encore). Pennyroyal Tea sees Kurt playing by himself as a singer song writer, this track seems to show his talent despite the fact that I like the original more than this baby.
For logical reasons the band chose to use tracks that were already acoustic as part of their concert structure, from In Utero is the track which truly stands out as truly being acoustic is Dumb. the cello work on here is near perfection, but it annoys me that they didn’t add it to other tracks like All Apologies which is far more important. Also, this track lets you notice a lot of things that you don’t seem to see from the studio version, like how cool and nifty the bass is in comparison to the guitar (you seem to notice things more clearly when they aren’t blanketed by distortion). Polly seems to be a fan favourite, so its kind of an essential pick for the line up. As for the song, well it sounds almost the same as the Nevermind recording except that its live and with the quality of that performance taking in the fact that no one screwed up means it gets bonus points (YAY!). the slow atmospheric tune Something in the Way is quite effective as glimpse to see what it was like living under a bridge for Cobain, and despite the fact that if you are high on fast paced music then you will find this boring. I find this to be quite an good pick for this set list for obvious reasons, not to mention the cello is also featured here, so that gives it bonus points too (YAY!).
Another reason that this performance was so good is the use of covers, a great selection of covers. The Man Who Sold the World (originally by David Bowie) is the most famous, despite what Kurt says to introduce it (“I am so going to screw this up”), he actually plays it nearly perfect. That main opening riff is so cool, and the rolling riff in the chorus shoves it as being one of the best on the disc, I wonder if the original is any better though?
Its kind of weird thinking of the fact that Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam is actually a cover of a cover, you see Kurt really liked this band called The Vaselines, who had covered a this song which is in fact an old Christian tune. first of all this song features Chris on harmonica. secondly, its better than anything that could every be sung in a church. and thirdly, it had a quote in the lyrics which seem to refer to what was going to happen next, “don’t expect me to lie, for the reasons you had to die”. Another band on Kurt’s list of obsessions were The Meat Puppets, these guys have written some really catchy songs in their time and must’ve gained a lot of publicity because three of their songs were covered. Lake Of Fire is my favourite pick from the whole album, its got one of the simplest yet coolest riffs and some of the catchiest lyrics, I would love to hear the original. Plateau has a similar strand of catchy hooks, the lyrics are more like a nursery rhyme and don’t much sense, but are amusing none the less. and the last cover from The Meat Puppets, Oh, Me, doesn’t seem to stand out quite as much as the other two but has an incredibly catchy riff and numerous other lyrical hooks.
And last of all, its time to finish with the closer, Where Did You Sleep Last Night?. a song originally written by Ledbelly, who from what I have heard (not much, but enough to make an impression) is complete cr@p. either way this song seems to be incredibly strong in Cobain’s hands, he sounds his most emotional towards the end with its formally styled screams but when he ends the album with “thank you” you realise now that this album is the last Nirvana CD that would come out in his life time.
Quite frankly it p*sses me off how many kids these days go and buy either Nevermind or the commercialised greatest hits package. rather than In Utero and this amazing CD, which is one of the best and possibly the best live performance captured on disc. its no doubt the best unplugged performance at any rate and will always be a classic CD to own. Be warned that It’s not something you just pull out every so often just to listen to a particular track, but is something you put on when you have time so you can listen to the whole performance, from track one to track fourteen.
Track Listing And Ratings
1. About A Girl * * * * *
2. Come As You Are * * * * *
3. Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunburn * * * *
4. The Man Who Sold The World * * * * *
5. Pennyroyal Tea * * * * ½
6. Dumb * * * *
7. Polly * * * *
8. On A Plain * * * * *
9. Something in the Way * * * *
10. Plateau * * * * *
11. Oh, Me * * * *
12. Lake Of Fire * * * * *
13. All Apologies * * * * *
14. Where Did You Sleep Last Night? * * * * *
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