| Realesed in 1991 Nirvana's, "Nevermind", has sold over 25 million copies worldwides and continues to sell copies around the world all the time. It contains timeless songs like, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "In Bloom", "Lithium", etc. Nevermind also introduced grunge to the world combining a punk like attitude with hard rock hooks and made Nirvana huge. This is one of the few albums from the early 90s that has become classic along with, "Blood Sugar Sex Majik", "The Black Album", "Ten" and this album, Nevermind was the album that made Nirvana become a classic rock band, and was one of the only albums Nirvana ever made since Kurt Cobain died only three years later in 1994 at the age of 27 at the same age which, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison died. Nevermind is a great classic album that makes a perfect addition to any rock fans collection. |
Truth be told, if I had reviewed this album when I first bought it, I would have given 2/5 and the best I could say of it was that it had one a half great songs on it. Not exactly sure when I bought the album...not when it first came out, that's for sure. Would have been many years later, after it had become one of the most hyped albums of all time. Maybe some years later I tried listening to the album again. Same result. One and a half great songs, and the rest is just "nothing" songs. So, one or two listens to the album when I first bought it. One or two listens the next time I heard it. Frankly, I had consigned this album to the "don't bother listening to this album ever again" bin. What changed my mind?
About a year or two ago I bought Nirvana's black compilation album. There were some songs on it that I wasn't familiar with, so I looked to find out what album they were from. The notes said "Nevermind". Hmmm. Really? Seriously, REALLY?? It's taken me a while, but I've re-listened to this album a couple of times in the last few days, so I think it's time to write a review of it.
Best songs:
Smells like teen spirit - When I said this album had 'one and a half great songs on it', on first impression, this is The Great song. It's a song for the ages, and the reason why people would bother to check out this album. Not sure if there has ever been a time when this song was not one of the greatest songs of all time...maybe one time I might have first heard this song in the middle of things, and heard "Hello, hello, hello..." and thought to myself "Meh!", BUT, once you hear it properly, from the start onwards, its greatness asserts itself. I love the introduction...not a guitar player myself, so not sure of the terminology, but the guitar lick at the front seems dampened, or maybe not fully amplified. Also love the spike in the dampened sound right before it becomes fully amplified or whatnot. Don't think you hear that little spike on MP3 players...to subtle for it. Then the angle grinder guitars kick in with one of the all time great riffs, and Dave "Thumper" Grohl starts banging the drums with what sounds like John Bonham for one drum stick, and Bonham's twin brother for the other drum stick. Lead singer Kurt Cobain does some vocal shredding in this song and the bass line is really cool. However, I do have to ask if anyone has nailed singing this song quite like Ian Turpie has. Be that as it may. Don't mind Patti Smith's version of this song either...way better than Tori Amos' version.
Lithium - probably my second favourite song on this album. Has the Quiet Loud Quiet structure favoured by one of their influences, Pixies (well, the usual phrase is Loud Quiet Loud, but I think my way is more accurate!). The chorus in this song is terrific and I like the bass playing in the middle of the song.
In bloom - as with The Police's drummer, Stewart Copeland, I find Grohl's drumming to be satisfying, aurally. Again, Grohl seems to want to turn his drumkit into something that Salvadore Dali might have drawn. Yet another cool bass line in this song (this album is full of them) and the guitars have a low buzzing sound to them. The chorus is catchy but I wonder if all those years ago if maybe I had found the lyrics too simple. Not an issue for me now, if that was the case.
Come as you are - I'm guessing that this might have been the 'half a great song' I had in mind when recalling this album years ago. Quiet, Loud, Quiet format. Mostly a mellow song with a smooth sound to it. Has a catchy bass line to it and some thumping drums too.
On a plain - when I listened to this album for the first time the other day, I placed a dot next to it, meaning I didn't mind the song. The opening track on this album got two ticks from me, and the others above got one tick. On second listen I gave this song another dot. This plunged me into a philosophical crisis of confidence...does two dots equal one tick? In this case, I've given the song a belated tick. It has some nice harmonies and the vocal melody has a sing-song quality to it as well as being eerily familiar...though I can't quite place it. Cobain uses the lyric "To write off lines that don't make sense", which may be Cobain's song writing template.
Next best songs:
Polly - mostly accoustic guitar, mellow, smooth. The kind of song you maybe could have found on The Beatles' White album. Has some child like lyrics again, which, if they did turn me off years ago, does not do so anymore.
Something in the way - the intro, as well as elsewhere, features a simple accoustic guitar. The drumming is light and uses cymbals a lot. Cobain is at his mildest here, vocally speaking. Perhaps this song has the most child like lyrics of any song on this album. Mellow track, and features a nice violin part to it too.
Best of the rest:
Breed - has a Police style intro (think "Synchronicity II"). Thrash/punk type drumming; bassy synth; indie rock vibe. Chorus is a bit catchy too.
Territorial pissings - has highly distorted electric guitars. Also has a thrash/punk vibe to it...maybe you could call it "Oi! punk". Features the lyric "Just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you". Cobain screams himself hoarse in this song. Literally. Found that funny!
Lounge act - bassy intro. Guitar sound a bit punk. Sort of catchy.
Stay away - actually, I didn't give this song a dot next to it, but I do find the raspy vocal on this quite a hook. Has thrash/punk drumming and punk style guitars. Bassy; two vocal styles by Cobain: 1) rock 2) something a little more extreme than that.
Really, the only song that isn't of some interest to me is:
Drain you - the one remaining song that I haven't made a note of here, yet. It's another song employing Cobain's sing-song vocal style. In a way, this song reminds me of "By the way", by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Took me a whle to like "By the way" as it sounded like a parody of their style. Nirvana seem to be regurgitating their sound here, which is not to say that this is a bad song.
Okay, that's my review. If I had written this years ago, it would have gotten 2 stars and I would have only mentioned two songs that I liked, more or less. If I mentioned other songs, it would have only been to note their varying styles, not because I liked the songs.
Has anything else changed to give make this album go from 2/5 to 5/5? Well, apart from finding some of the songs on this album catchier on their compilation than I did when listening to them on this album, I suppose another major change is that I've listened to more varied sounding albums in the meantime...compilations by the Ramones, Sex Pistols, Saints, Slayer (especially their good album of punk covers "Undisputed attitude"), and, perhaps most importantly, albums by Pixies, which I consider to be the superior grunge band. All these albums may have expanded my taste in music far enough to find gold in this album when previously I had found pretty much all of the album unremarkable.
Did consider giving this album 4 stars and maybe calling it an 85/100 or 9/10 album. On my second recent listen, I think I am really looking forward to relistening to this album again, one of these days. In its favour is an absolute classic song, Cobain's raspy vocals, Grohl's thunderbolts and the punk influence that comes through in this album. You can tell that Nirvana have been influential when you hear bands like Faith No More 'borrow' some of the band's sounds, e.g. "Last cup of sorrow" has an intro which is similar to Nirvana's "In bloom".
Anyway, after all this time, I do think that this album is worth 5/5 and ALL the hype it has received. Just took me a while to see things this way.
If you like this album, some other albums I've enjoyed and reviewed here include:
Pixies: "Come on pilgrim/Surfer Rosa" and "Doolittle"
Ramones: Anthology
Sex Pistols: Kiss this
Saints: Know your product
Slayer: Undisputed attitude
Metallica: "Reload" and "Master of puppets" and "Garage days Inc" for some punk influences on the band. |
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"Kurt was great....."
"not bad but overrated for sure"