Pros: (Most) all of the hits wrapped up in one tidy package! That new song...
Cons: Not at all comprehensive. It feels like a marketing ploy.
The Bottom Line: Nirvana is a fine enough album for people who don't know anything about the band. If you know any sounds outside of the big hits, this album is disappointing.
I was with Nirvana from the moment they broke into the mainstream scene. I wasn’t nearly as angry or as disenchanted with the world and life as the band would have liked with a fan, but my status as a teenager in middle-America was definitely the quo as far as that went. Nirvana in the early 1990’s spoke to and about the apathetic anger that struck most teens. And teens listened, flocking to the record store in droves and buying the Seattle band’s records.
Whether or not I fit the stereotypical image of the proper Nirvana fan, isn’t up for debate. I grew up in an extremely rural and probably backwards part of the mid-west. My idea of rebellion was to pierce my ears multiple times and quietly and liberally protest. The “grunge” fascination with flannel never quite caught me. See, flannel was indeed very practical as far as farmers went. And there were many, many farming families in my hometown.
I don’t recall the specific time at which I first heard Nirvana. My assumption is that the song was Smells Like Teen Spirit. I also don’t remember whether I heard Nirvana before I heard the contemporaries. I suppose it doesn’t really matter because those few years I had with Nirvana were turbulent to say the least. My interest in the band waxed and waned, not at all in synchronicity with their hits. I wasn’t ever much a fan of hit singles—I preferred a good overall album. And as far as good overall albums went, my opinion of Nirvana was definitely mixed. It is my belief that the band released just one overall great album and the irony in that is that it isn’t a studio disc nor is it comprised of original Nirvana material. Unplugged in New York, in addition to the other albums, are wholly underrepresented on the album. This is the specific reason why this highly anticipated 2002 release is very much a disappointment.
The album Nirvana was a long time coming and had attached to it much stigma. It represented the culmination of years of legal battles between the surviving members of Nirvana (Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic) and Kurt Cobain’s volatile widow Courtney Love. The choices that were made on this disc are unfortunate. There are of course the hits like Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, Heart-Shaped Box, and In Bloom. There are even a few less-known offerings. But in all the choices seem arbitrary. Not just that, but the arrangement of the songs is also problematic. Each subsequent Nirvana album added new and different things to the band’s musical repertoire. The Nirvana that released 1989’s debut Bleach was a very different band than the one that recorded In Utero four short years later. And it is strange to say the least that the songs included lack any discernable order. It makes listening to Nirvana from start to end a chore.
So, it is a hurried and short-sighted move on the part of the record company to simply get SOMETHING on the shelves from the long-since defunct although legendary band. There is but one major draw to buying this collection. Listeners get the pleasure of hearing on of the band’s final and newly released recordings. You Know You’re Right fits nicely into the song catalogue of Nirvana. Specifically, it seems to draw upon the direction the band was headed at the time of Cobain’s suicide. So, if for no other reason than that, Nirvana should be in pretty much any collection.
But let me be clear here—Nirvana indeed has some major, major problems. The order is bizarre—definitely chronological (aside from the new song at the beginning), but sonically mystifying. The songs seem to have been chosen arbitrarily. Of course, the hits probably should be there (as it is indeed a “greatest hits” compilation) but I find it troubling to say the least as to the reason why some songs were included instead of others. Nirvana’s material may not be that expansive, but considering the hits, near misses, and sparking rarities there should definitely be more than a mere fourteen tracks.
Think I’m kidding? The songs that are included are definitely overall very good, but I just can’t endorse any Nirvana “greatest hits” or “best of” that lacks brilliant tracks Polly, Where Did You Sleep Last Night, Something in the Way, and my favorite (albeit a cover) Lake of Fire. This brings me to my thesis: Nirvana (as an album, not a band) is a marketing ploy. Pure and simple. If it wasn’t for that one unearthed song and the legal mess that surrounded its creation, it wouldn’t have come even close to the vicinity of my musical radar.
This brings me to another comment. Nirvana may not be deserving of a box set (they really don’t have enough material), but they definitely deserve at least a 2-CD set ala The Best of the Doors. That would provide enough space for the band’s biggest hits and best rarities to all get the proper amount of exposure.
Nothing about Nirvana comes as a particular shock. Nothing, that is, except for the aforementioned glaring omissions and the strange inclusion of the original and less popular album version of About A Girl. That song was, in my humble estimation, much better as an acoustic bit. Songs included that remain yet unmentioned are Been a Son, Sliver, Lithium, Pennyroyal Tea (thank god), Rape Me, Dumb and the MTV Unplugged versions of original song All Apologies and David Bowie cover The Man Who Sold The World.
So, basically this disc is fine. It’s fine for extreme newbies to Nirvana and to the whole Seattle music scene. It’s also fine for people unwilling to invest in the entire modest Nirvana discography. But it is by no means fine for old fans (like myself) who expect something more out of such a seriously hyped collection. My main suggestion would be to not get Nirvana. It’s not worth the money; it’s not worth the time. Save your pennies and instead get the individual albums—for better or for worse. You’ll get a better feeling of what the band was about instead of this strange mishmash of songs.
Rating: 3/5 stars
01. You Know You're Right (new song)
02. About a Girl (Bleach, 1989)
03. Been a Son (Incesticide, 1992)
04. Sliver (Incesticide, 1992)
05. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nevermind, 1991)
06. Come as You Are (Nevermind, 1991)
07. Lithium (Nevermind, 1991)
08. In Bloom (Nevermind, 1991)
09. Heart-Shaped Box (In Utero, 1993)
10. Pennyroyal Tea (In Utero, 1993)
11. Rape Me (In Utero, 1993)
12. Dumb (In Utero, 1993)
13. All Apologies (MTV Unplugged in New York, 1994)
14. The Man Who Sold the World (MTV Unplugged in New York, 1994)
14 songs newly remastered featuring the previously unreleased You Know You re Right , the last song written and recorded by Kurt Cobain before his dea...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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