As you can probably guess by reading my previous reviews, and the admittedly harsh title of this review, I in no way claim to be a fan of Nirvana. I suppose I had to have "been there" when they broke out into the mainstream back in 1991 to really appreciate them. But at the time, I was too busy playing little league basketball and begging my parents to buy me a Super NES system to really give a damn about the band (or mainstream music, for that matter). To me, somebody that waited until about ten years after Nevermind came out to buy one of their records, Nirvana always seemed like a sub-par pop-rock band whose only real claim to fame was influencing all these horrible alternative bands in the mid-90's and even today. Not that their music was "bad." It just was nowhere near what everybody made it out to be, and certainly below other grunge bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. This being the case, most will probably argue that I'm not qualified to review a Nirvana record, but on the other hand, would anybody have really cared about Nirvana if they weren't so different from Poison and Warrant (two bands I never seriously listened to before) in the first place?
In all honesty, I don't even own this record but I have heard all the songs, including You Know You're Right, and feel I'm still qualified to write a reasonable review for it. The Tracklisting is as follows:
1. You Know You're Right
2. About a Girl
3. Been a Son
4. Sliver
5. Smells Like Teen Spirit
6. Come as You Are
7. Lithium
8. In Bloom
9. Heart-Shaped Box
10. Pennyroyal Tea
11. Rape Me
12. Dumb
13. All Apologies (Unplugged)
14. The Man Who Sold the World
That's a pretty meaty track selection for a greatest hits record. You Know You're Right is surprisingly laid back, and almost sounds more fitting for a Tool record than a Nirvana record (and that's not exactly a good thing by the way). Most of the other song choices are pretty obvious. Nevermind and In Utero steal the show, while the band's first album Bleach gets only one song in the form of About A Girl.
Been A Son and Sliver are interesting tracks, the latter showing Nirvana (for once) not taking themselves too seriously. But again, nothing too terribly special. Next.
Of course, no Nirvana comp would be complete without Smells Like Teen Spirit, probably the most important (not "greatest") rock song of the 90's. Everybody's probably heard it, even those who never heard of Nirvana, so I probably don't need to say much about it. The other Nevermind tracks are Come As You Are, In Bloom and Lithium. I was always somewhat baffled by the way people label Come As You Are "haunting" and "threatening," because the song's lyrics always sounded to me like they were supposed to be about love and friendship. The bassline, for some reason, almost sounds like something you'd hear in an office supply store. Lithium isn't much better thanks to its poorly written chorus and annoying verses. In Bloom was IMO the crowning jewel of Nevermind. The song just has a very relaxed, carefree tone and the verses (despite, once again, suffering from poor writing) were quite catchy. Not a spectacular song by any stretch, but about as good as Nirvana gets. Next.
Four songs were taken from In Utero, namely Dumb, Pennyroyal Tea, Heart Shaped Box, and Rape Me. These are certainly better than the Nevermind songs, but again there's nothing really spectacular about them. Once again, I never found In Utero all that creepy or non-commercial, and hearing these four "classics" didn't change my mind. The songs are catchy, melodic, and the only really "depressing" moments are in Pennyroyal Tea and perhaps Kurt's whiny verses in Rape Me.
The last two songs are from the band's Unplugged In New York album. I actually enjoyed the unplugged version of All Apologies as it manages to have a nice, swampy tone and Kurt's voice for once doesn't get on my nerves. Ditto to The Man That Sold The World.
Most will argue that this compilation is missing some key songs, but I beg to differ. This is a "Greatest Hits" compilation, so logically it has to contain the band's most popular songs. From what I've seen, this compilation pretty much nails it down perfectly. The reason for my two star rating has more to do with my opinion of these songs than the quality of the package. And that's that Nirvana is a band that had their time, and it's now time to finally leave them a distant memory...
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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