“We can plant a house. We can build a tree. I don’t even care. We can have all three.”
For a band so tied to “teenage angst,” Nirvana sure had some wacky lyrics.
Nirvana was the first rock band I heard and I love them. For a short time when I was 7 years old, the first half of Nevermind defined rock music for me. You can call them Seattle grunge, you can say they were underground but then became pop, you can tell me they ended cheeseball hair metal … whatever. That was Greek to me. They ROCKED. That’s all I knew or cared about, and I still feel the same way. They don’t sound “90s” to me or remind me of a more innocent time. They simply kick ass. They sound fresh and vibrant and relevant.
Bleach
1989
8 sickening pessimist hypocrite master conservative communist apocalyptic bastards out of 10
Like many a debut, Bleach doesn’t hint at what a success this band would become, but it’s revered in retrospect, especially by the band’s most devoted fans. It’s the most Nirvana-ish Nirvana album while also selling the band short.
We’ve got some ugly songs on here. Even the pretty ones are rough around the edges, much like my dating history, huzzah! There are some odd structures, parts that go on too long and others that suddenly rip through four or five sharp turnarounds in 20 seconds. Kurt favors a low-pitched, garbled yell a lot of the time instead of the vivid, anguish-fueled screams we’d hear later. His tone of voice here is like half cynicism, half emotional doom. Not spooky, supernatural doom a la Black Sabbath that says to you “You’re gonna die because the earth is going to explode!” but a more grounded, real-life doom that says, “Does it matter if I die considering I feel dead every time I wake up?” Who could resist that kind of mood on a Friday afternoon?
Only a few of these songs are truly memorable. “Negative Creep” with its chuggy, assaulting riffs, “School” for being similarly heavy and badass, the cover song “Love Buzz” for a pseudo surf riff played in slow motion on a bass, and “About a Girl” because the band performed it live incessantly despite it being kind of a bland pop song.
But if you ask me to hum the riffs from “Swap Meet” or “Scoff” and “Mr. Moustache,” and I’m like, “Uhh, which one is that again?” yet it’s in these more forgettable songs where the album’s charm comes out, with blistering asskickery suddenly yanking itself out of a sludgy mess and to the forefront of the mix.
You gotta take the good with the bad on this one. Its brand of goodness only exists in the murky context your ears are subjected to most of the time.
Nevermind
1991
10 hello hello hello hello how lows out of 10
If I’m going to lose points on the hipster scale by professing my undying love for this album, I’ll attempt to win it back by saying my favorite song on it is the underappreciated “On a Plain,” not the four radio hits, which were like, you know, THE BIGGEST SONGS ON THE PLANET for a slice of history. Those of course would be the big fat wooshing “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the ooey gooey “Come as You Are,” the slamming “Lithium,” and the sing-songy “In Bloom.”
Dave Grohl makes his debut by bashing the living hell out of his drumset like it owes him money. The band overall sounds much more composed and consistent this time around. There’s still big huge chords and violent riffing and noisy distortion, but somehow it all gels in the distinctly professional-sounding mix by producer Butch Vig.
The songs have room to breathe, pretty straightforward riffs and logical pop rock structures. Kurt does much more singing than yelling (although the yelling we do get is some damn good yelling “A DENIAL! A DENIAL!”) and there are some deliciously effective backing vocals from Kurt and Dave. Some people call Kurt’s delivery “whiny,” but he doesn’t whine like a kid whines when he wants something from you. He whines like a hopeless man whines, as if to say, “This is how I feel; I don’t expect anyone to do anything about it.”
There are some asskicking non-hits, the speedy “Breed,” the abrasive “Territorial Pissings,” and the groovy “Drain You.” There are a couple solemn acoustic songs, “Polly” and “Something in the Way,” positioned at track #6 and #12, serving as cool-down breaks from all the rip-roaring rocking going on.
Some people say this album is too poppy, commercial, over-produced, and coated in shiny polish, and I feel sorry for those people because it’s been rocking my socks off for thirty fucking years.
Incesticide
1992
8 oatmeal pizzas out of 10
This compilation album contains various B sides and unreleased material that was all recorded before Nevermind, and it sure sounds like it. We’re back to a much less polished, much punkier Nirvana sound here. It basically smells like bammer weed.
Kurt deliberately half-asses a few lines, the bass is occasionally farting all over the mix, and there’s unrefined messiness from the drums (which are played by four different guys throughout the album’s 44 minutes).
There’s a bunch of fun, bopping tunes that don’t overstay their welcome, like “Been a Son,” “Sliver,” a rock version of “Polly,” and three delightful Vaselines covers.
Oddly, the whole second half is filled with damp, drudgy, off-kilter rockers, like “Beeswax,” “Mexican Seafood,” and the downright unpalatable “Big Long Now.”
Much like Bleach, this album has a funny way of pulling me in most when I least expect it. It’s not necessarily the awesome “Dive, dive, dive, dive with me!” in “Dive,” and not the poppy “Kiss, kiss, Molly’s lips!” in the Vaselines cover “Molly’s Lips,” but just a bright guitar lick here, a kickass drum fill there, a jarring string scratch over there, and a nice syncopated turnaround behind you WATCH OUT!
It’s easy to consider this one a less essential Nirvana release, but it’s got its precious moments.
In Utero
1993
10 open sores out of 10
For an album known for its raw production style courtesy of indie hero and all-around charmer Steve Albini, resulting in the most raucous sound this band put on record, In Utero is deceptively balanced. You’ve got your booming catchy rock tunes, your out-of-control assaults of sonic nastiness, and your very-much-in-control melodic prettiness.
The band consciously shot for a less accessible, more obnoxious record than Nevermind, seemingly a little miffed that they had become multi-millionaires. One of my favorite details about its recording is that Dave shopped around L.A. for the loudest snare drum he could find. Some producers just turn the snare drum volume up if they need to. Not Steve Albini, though, so you get a “guys playing in a room” mix that’s wonderfully energetic, bright, bashing, screechy, and crass. If this album were a burger, it would have crispy shoestring onions.
Kurt makes his choruses obnoxious, but forgot to do the same on the verses, which have some of the most inviting lines ever. “If she floats, then she is not a witch like we’d thought.” “Broken hymen of your highness, I’m left black.” “If you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask someone else first.” These lines all sound awesome! Kurt was such a brilliant vocalist it’s like he couldn’t escape his own talents.
The instrumentation has bits of newfound sophistication, except it’s usually hard to tell with such an unrestrained performance. There’s an odd rhythmic bounce in “Scentless Apprentice,” near-disjointedness that suddenly pulls itself together on “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle,” and well-woven melodies in “All Apologies.” There’s careless noise in “Milk It,” tsunami-like momentum on “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter,” and a cello on “Pennyroyal Tea.”
This album was hard to get into when I was a kid, but it’s grown on me big time, and it’s solidly my favorite Nirvana album.
MTV Unplugged in New York
1994
7 men who sold the world out of 10
If these guys resented their own success, they sure had a funny way of showing it. On a normal night on tour, this band played loud as hell and sloppy on purpose. They let feedback ring out in torturous “jams” and destroyed their instruments nightly. What the fuck are they doing sitting down playing acoustic guitars as precisely as possible, surrounded by CANDLES? Why is Dave’s hair in a PONY TAIL? Was this their idea of a joke?
Apparently not. They give the unplugged format an honest effort. Kurt’s playing is focused and his signing is reserved. Dave’s drumming is extremely light and simplistic. Their friends from the Meat Puppets show up to add more guitar.
“Come As You Are” and “All Apologies” are the two bonifide Nirvana hit songs on here, and they’re pretty unmemorable in this form. David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” shines brighter, but its infectious hook is played on an electric guitar. Blasphemy. The Meat Puppets’ “Lake of Fire” also hits the mark with cute picking guitar that sounds nothing like Nirvana. There’s another two Meat Puppets songs, a Lead Belly song, and a Vaselines song.
I do enjoy this album from time to time — “On a Plain” still kinda rocks — but I’ve had years to accept just how underwhelming it is.
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah
1996
9 left wing right wing broken wings out of 10
Sad news, guys. Kurt Cobain died. And so we enter the string of posthumous releases, and out of them all, this one feels the most genuine. It was assembled by Krist and Dave while their memories were still fresh, and they picked out recordings from various shows between 1989 and 1994. If anyone knew what the band sounded like live, it’s them.
It’s a good thing I actually listen to albums before writing a review even if I’ve heard them a million times. I was all ready to say stuff like, “Sure, it’s raw and loud and everything, but it’s not required listening or anything,” and that is fucking nonsense. This fucking thing KILLS!!!
Too soon? Pardon me. This fucking thing ROCKS!!!
It’s aggressive, nasty, slamming, screaming, screeching, wild great stuff front to back, especially the band’s most raucous songs like “School,” “Scentless Apprentice,” “Milk It,” “Negative Creep,” “Breed,” and “Tourette’s.” As for hits, it’s really just “Heart Shaped Box” and a fast rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Let’s do a count. One, two, three, four! Haha, no, jackass, I meant a song-by-album count: three from Bleach, four from Nevermind, three from Incesticide, four from In Utero, plus “Polly,” which was originally on Nevermind, but this rocking version is closer to the one from Incesticide. There’s also one previously unreleased song “Spank Thru,” and well, some songs are previously unreleased for a reason, but whatever, it’s nice to have something new, especially back when this came out.
Nirvana wasn’t much for nifty improvisation, but they sure let that live energy fly, so you’ve got plenty of perfect imperfections that don’t at all impede on the essence of these awesome tunes. Crank it up!
Published March 2022