Throughout their brief but amazing lifespan, no band had changed the face of music better than Nirvana did in the early 1990s. Taking the pop melodies of the Beatles, the abrasive noise of punk, the droning riffs of Black Sabbath, and the white-noise, underground rock sound of the Pixies, Nirvana brought late 70s and 1980s underground rock music to the mainstream. By 1991, pop music was under siege by hordes of bland and mindless rock music ran by the hair-bands of the 1980s while pop music itself was run by producers rather than real singers and artists at a time when image was more important that the music.
1991 was the year where all those things came to question through an underground revolution of underground rock bands like Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sonic Youth, and R.E.M. challenged the conventions of modern pop music by stripping it all down to guitars, bass, and drums, (for the case of NIN, minimalist synthesizers and electronic gadgets) all through a punk context where the musicians didn’t have to know 500 chords to play a guitar or have the money to produce something that is slick or accessible in the overcrowded pop music market. When Nirvana broke through in the fall of 1991 with their album “Nevermind” and single “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, it channeled the anger and frustration of millions of youth looking for a voice at a time when there was no real voice. Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain became that voice and on January 12, 1992, the band made history by reaching the number one album charts and knocking down Michael Jackson from that top spot that marked that the 1990s have officially arrived.
With the excessive days of hair-metal disappearing and the stale, overproduced sludge of dance-pop out of the way, rock was finally back with bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, the Chili Peppers, and many more trying to make it sound alive again. While Nirvana became the most famous of all the Alternative bands at that era, they were also the most self-destructive as Kurt Cobain had troubles adjusting to his newfound wealth and fame. In late 1993, Nirvana released “In Utero”, an abrasive album of white noise and punk that alienated some of their pop fans but was greeted with open arms by their punk-friendly fans and music critics. Despite that success, media attention and the pressures of the music industry was destroying Cobain’s state of mind and it finally all caught up to him in March of 1994 as he attempted suicide in Rome, Italy after overdosing on tranquilizers with a mix of champagne. A few weeks later, he fled a rehab facility and went to Seattle where on April 5, 1994; Kurt Cobain killed himself with a shotgun and was found a few days later.
It’s been eight years since Cobain’s death and already, Nirvana is still popular after a long-awaited release of a box set of unreleased material is finally on its way to the public. The box set was originally set for release on September of 2001 but was mired in legal difficulties from Cobain’s widow and former Hole singer Courtney Love who battled her husband’s former band mates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl over the rights of Nirvana’s legacy. Nearly a year of lawsuits and public fighting, the three settled as the box set is scheduled for release soon while a greatest hits package is now being available to the project.
The Nirvana greatest hits simply titled “Nirvana” is an album of thirteen Nirvana classics and a new, unreleased track that was the last song the band had recorded in early 1994. While it is obvious that longtime, hardcore fans won’t be pleased with a Nirvana greatest-hits album and don’t want to pay $13-$20 for one new song, “Nirvana” is still a good introduction to the band for those who have never heard of them. The fourteen-track album is filled with some of the band’s famed singles, b-sides, and album cuts that were loved by millions of fans. While “Nirvana” is missing some key cuts and fan favorites, it is still a worthy greatest hits album.
The first track and big reason why many Nirvana fans might want this greatest hits is the new, unreleased song “You Know You’re Right” that was recorded in January of 1994. In comparison to today’s nu-metal music, teen-pop, and party rap songs, this is by far one of the most eerie and emotionally driven tracks ever heard. With its ominous, guitar chimes and rumbling bass lines from Krist Novoselic, “You Know You’re Right” is very ominous, even as you hear Kurt Cobain’s vocals as he sings, “I will never bother you/I will never promise to/I will never follow you/I will never bother you” as Grohl’s drums come in Cobain’s growling vocals and raging guitar comes in for the bridge of “Never speak a word again/I will crawl away for good” that leads to the second verse and bridge of “I won’t move away from here/You won’t be afraid of fear/No thought was put into this/Always knew it would come to this” as the guitars and drums reappear for “Things have never been so swell/I have never failed to fail” as it leads to the screaming chorus of “Pain (three times in first chorus, five in second chorus)/You know you’re right (three in the first, seventeen in the second)” as it is followed by wailing guitar feedback.
Cobain then goes into the third verse of his cryptic lyrics as he sings, “I’m so warm and calm inside/I no longer have to hide/Let’s talk about someone else/Steaming soup begins to melt/Nothing really bothers her/She just wants to love herself” that leads back to the second verse and the bridge where Cobain screams his lungs out and screams “Pain” as if he’s bleeding inside that is followed by his emotional plea of “You know you’re right” and in the end he screams “Pain” as it is followed by ominous guitar chimes and Grohl’s ominous drum rumblings as it reveals the fragility and pain of Kurt Cobain.
The next three tracks are from the band’s days in the Seattle-based Subpop label when Cobain, Novoselic, and original drummer Chad Channing led the band. First from their 1989 debut “Bleach” is the Beatlesque love song, “About A Girl”. With its washy guitar riffs and mid-tempo punk rhythms, “About A Girl” is by far one of the most brilliant pop songs ever written with its innocent lyrics from Cobain as he sings, “I need an easy friend/I do it with an intellect/I don’t think you fit this shoe/I don’t, won’t you have a clue” as it leads to the chorus of “Take advantage while/You hear me, I could try/I can’t see you every night, free” that features wobbly bass lines from Novoselic and smooth, pulsating beats of Channing as it is followed by Cobain’s fuzz-melodic guitar solo in the middle of the song.
The next two tracks are B-sides that appeared in Nirvana’s 1992 odds-and-sods collection “Insecticide”. First is “Been A Son” with its droning punk-Sabbath riffs and fast-paced rhythms of drummer Chad Channing as Kurt sings lyrics of angst with the catchy chorus of “She should’ve, been a son” as Kurt sings about a young girl’s problems with her family in the dreary existence of Aberdeen, the band’s hometown. Next is classic “Sliver” with Novoselic’s wobbly bass lines and Cobain’s down-home lyrics as he sings, “Mom and Dad went to a show/Dropped me off at Grandpa Joe’s/I kicked and screamed, so please let me go” as he sings the chorus of “Grandma take me home” as he sings about the angst of hanging around lame grandparents with its blazing guitars and hard-hitting beats.
The next four tracks are the four classic singles from “Nevermind”, the band’s 1991 breakthrough album with new drummer Dave Grohl and producer Butch Vig. Whereas “Bleach” and the early B-sides represented Nirvana as a catchy punk-pop band, “Nevermind” was the band taking their grunge rock sound to the fullest. First is the famed single for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with its brash, opening riffs and Grohl’s hard-hitting beats as it marked the end of the hair bands and moved the way for new bands. The first instant you hear the song, you know it’s about anger and frustration as it is said in Kurt Cobain’s lyrics of “Load up on guns/Bring your friends/It’s fun to lose and to pretend/She’s overboard/She’s self-assured/All I know, a dirty word/How low, how low, How low, how low/(repeat line a few more times)” as it leads to the chorus of “With the lights out, it’s less dangerous/Here we are now, entertain us/I feel stupid and contagious/Here we are now, entertain us/A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido”. With its droning, guitar riffs, powerful fills, and wobbly bass line, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the perfect definition of angst, even at the end of the song as Kurt screams “A denial”, a denial of what you want as legendary music critic Griel Marcus had described in the cover story in 1999 as Rolling Stone named Kurt Cobain the Artist of the Decade.
Next is the brooding “Come As You Are” with its eerie, melodic riff that was lifted by the underground classic “Eighties” by the post-punk band Killing Joke. With its vibrato guitar riff followed by a smooth and brooding rhythm, Cobain sings his eerie lyrics that includes the raging chorus of “As I swear that I don’t have a gun/No I don’t have a gun/No I don’t have a gun” that is very cryptic and bleak that was completely against the grain at the time kids began to tear up their New Kids on the Block poster for something like Ice-T, Ice Cube, Nirvana, or Pearl Jam. Next is the raging, “Lithium” with its melodic guitar riffs and soft rhythms as Cobain sings his sarcastic lyrics of “I’m so happy, because today I found my friends/They’re in my head/I’m so ugly but that’s ok ‘cause so are you/We’ve broken our mirrors/Sunday morning is everyday for all I care/And I’m not scared/Light my candles in daze, ‘cause I found god” as he screams “Yeah, yeah, yeah” with its blazing guitar riffs and hard-hitting beats from Dave Grohl that includes a raging chorus after second verse where Cobain sings, “I like it, I’m not gonna crack/I miss you, I’m not gonna crack/I love you, I’m not gonna crack/I kill you, I’m not gonna crack/(repeat whole chorus)”.
“In Bloom” opens with Grohl’s hard-hitting fills and Cobain’s Sabbath-like guitar drones as he sings about teen angst and the frustration of kids with his cool, smooth vocals as it leads to the chorus of “Let the world we like/All our pretty songs sounding/Like to sing along/Lots of shoot is gone/But it don’t know what it means/Don’t know what it means/Hears the word he likes/(repeat entire chorus till “Don’t know what it means”)” as it is followed by fuzz-tone guitar solos and wobbly bass lines. The next four tracks are from the band’s 1993 album “In Utero”, an album that was more abrasive and less-pop driven than the sound from “Nevermind”. With legendary Chicago producer and Big Black founder Steve Albini, Nirvana produced a punk-based masterpiece that is a favorite to Nirvana’s hardcore punk fans. The first single is the classic “Heart-Shaped Box” with its eerie and melodic guitar riffs, smooth and rumbling rhythms, Cobain sings his cryptic lyrics of “She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak/I’ve been locked inside your heart-shaped box, for a week/I was drawn into your magnet tar pit trap/I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black” as its droning guitar riffs and power-punching drum fills come in for the chorus of “Hey, wait/I’ve got a new complaint/Forever in dept to your priceless advice/(repeat chorus 2 more times)/Your advice”. With its warbling guitar solo and dense mixing from Albini and Scott Litt, “Heart-Shaped Box” is an eerie and raw masterpiece.
Next is ominous “Pennyroyal Tea” as it starts out soft with just a guitar playing in the background as Cobain sings, “I’m on my time with everyone/I have very bad posture” as Grohl’s powerful drums and Krist Novoselic’s rumbling bass comes in for the chorus as Kurt screams “Sit and drink Pennyroyal tea/Distill the life that’s inside of me/Sit and drink Pennyroyal tea/I’m anemic royalty” as it features Sabbath-droning guitar solos and Cobain’s obtuse lyrics that separates the pop-friendly “Nevermind” in comparison to the dense, raw sound of “In Utero”. Next is the anti-rape song “Rape Me” as it starts out with the same opening riffs of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in a much slower pace but the drums and bass don’t come in after Cobain sings, “Rape me, rape me my friend/Rape me, rape me again” where they come in with the blazing guitars as Cobain sings the chorus line of “I’m not the only one” repeatedly. With its angst-ridden verses of “Hate me/Do it and do it again/Waste me/Taste me, my friend” and its raging chorus, Cobain still proves as a master songwriter when it comes to angst. “Dumb” is an almost acoustic ballad with a low-sounding cello accompanying the track as Cobain sings, “I’m not like them/But I can pretend/The sun is gone/But I have a light/The day is done/But I’m having fun/I think I’m dumb/Or maybe just happy/Think I’m just happy” as he sings about his own fragility and insecurities that has plagued him during the wave of success during “Nevermind” that proves his humanistic qualities into his songs.
The last two tracks are from the MTV Unplugged performance in November of 1993, just six months before Kurt dies. The MTV Unplugged performance was considered legendary for the band’s performance where they revealed another side to the world and stripped it down to the bone on several classics, obscure covers, and unpredictable choices for songs. Released a year after its recorded performance, “MTV Unplugged in NY” is considered a masterpiece and a fond farewell from Nirvana. The first track is the ballad “All Apologies” with its melodic-driven acoustic guitars from Cobain and former Germs guitarist Pat Smear and smooth rhythms from Grohl and Novoselic as Cobain sings, “What else should I be/All apologies/What else should I say/Everyone is gay/Where else could write/I don’t have the right/What else should I be/All apologies” as it leads to its elegant chorus of “In the sun, in the sun I feel as one/In the sun, in the sun/I’m married, buried” that shows Kurt Cobain at his most revealing and most intimate.
The album closer is a brilliant cover of the David Bowie song “The Man Who Sold The World”. Almost as good as the Bowie version, Nirvana’s performance made both their and his versions masterpieces in their own right. Playing an acoustic-electric guitar, Cobain belts out the famous guitar riffs as it leads to the song’s slow but seductive groove as he sings Bowie’s lyrics of “We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when/Although I wasn’t there, he said I was his friend/Which came as some surprise, I spoke into his eyes/I thought you died alone, a long, long time ago” as it leads to Novoselic and Smear playing a melodic riff during the first chorus of “Oh no, not me/I never lost control/You’re face to face/With the Man Who Sold the World” as he belts a droning guitar riff on the acoustic-electric. As the song finishes, Cobain accompanied by Lori Goldston on cello, plays an ominous and beautiful guitar solo that serves as a fond closer to this compilation.
While it’s pretty obvious longtime, hardcore fans would complain over some noted omissions like “Drain You”, “Serve The Servants”, “School”, and many other Nirvana classics, “Nirvana” is still a worthy introduction to new fans that haven’t heard any of their albums. Still, the best introduction for new fans would be to pick up the albums “Nevermind” and “In Utero” and then go forth into other albums like “MTV Unplugged in NY”, “Bleach”, “Insecticide” and the 1996 live album “From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah”. While the only thing new for fans is the song “You Know You’re Right”, it is skeptical that some fans don’t want to pay $13-$20 for a compilation with just one new song. The best suggestion for those fans is to save their money and wait for the box set where there will be a slew of unreleased material just to make the hardcore fans go nuts. In the meantime, “Nirvana” is just the compilation to own if you just want the new song, “You Know You’re Right”.
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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