Well, looks to me like Chris went rummaging through his old tapes a few months ago, and dusted off some more Nirvana rarities for us. What we got is pretty much a mini version of the box-set,
song-wise...But better quality.
"Sliver: The Best Of The Box" consists of twenty-two tracks total, all of which have been heard before, but again are released on this collection in 'boom-box' form. Many of them are home demos...I thought I'd had enough of those after 'With The Lights Out', but apparently Geffen wants us to hear every single song Kurt ever recorded in his entire lifespan.
To me, this release is an apology for 'Lights Out'. It seems the record label realized that they distributed four discs featuring content strictly for the hardcore. So it wasn't such a spiffy idea; thats where this comes in...People want to hear demos and unreleased songs by huge bands like Nirvana, so why not put them on a respectable cd? And only the ones that at least casual fans will at least know of and care about. The real sound of the songs is pretty much usual B-Side Nirvana (Incesticide)...On the electric tracks, anyway. The vocals, at times, seem drowned out by the instrumental. This will prove to be very annoying after a few minutes, and may turn off a listener who hardly cares what the band would sound like as amatuer musicians with cheap equipment; the early days of Nirvana. Very early. Kurt's solo appearences are not as great as something you would find on Nirvana's 'Unplugged', but have been re-mixed a bit.
Although this album is very repetitive and remeniscint of the box-set, there are some quite good tracks on it. The acoustic version of Lithium (which I thought was Polly for the first few seconds) was pretty interesting; I always thought that Kurt was a master at turning quick poppier songs into acoustic ballads. Despite the tape-recording quality, I'd have to say the majority of 'Sliver' (including that song, as well) isn't as choppy as WTLO. They tried, hard this time, to give Nirvana fans what they were truly expecting of the box-set. It isn't much more, but there are some extra tracks on it that were not included before.
One good aspect of the album is that its mixed very well; theres a good variety of songs. Unlike a normal greatest hits, there are many uncommen tracks right alongside those radio hits. You can listen to Sappy, Opinion, and Ain't It A Shame, then roll right into Come As You Are and 'Teen Spirit. Basically, it has enough Grunge for the core fans, and enough catch for the newer listeners. However, I think 'new listeners' would be better off downloading bits from this; its fun to hear different recordings of songs like 'You Know Your Right' and 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. For the most part, casual music fans won't be too put off by this, and diehard fans...probably have been listening to it for the past few paragraphs. It's not the best collection of Nirvana songs I've seen; featuring carbon copies of songs from 'With The Lights Out'. Thats what it is: a
shortened, amped-up WTLO. A best of....a best of.
Besides being what many have expected of it, 'Sliver' isn't all bad. Nowhere near the opposite, however. I don't think it was absolutly necessary for the label to put out something like this...If they announce yet another Nirvana compilation, even though it may turn out to be a good one, nobody is going to care any longer. I doubt this will sell much (If people today can download their favorites for free, why would they take the time to buy something like this?); of course it'll be popular among fans, but Nirvana at one time appealed to several different...social classes, I might say. Real social classes. So, in the very end, I would not reccommend this to just any music fan; or even a genre fan, at the most. Real, dedicated Nirvana fans, it's a good idea. A few tracks that you haven't heard before, and a higher quality compact 'With The Lights Out'.
Credits
Guitar/Vocals: Kurt Cobain
Bass: Krist Novoselic
Drums/Vocals: Dave Grohl
Over Time:
Guitar: Jason Everman (live)
Drums: Chad Channing, Dale Crover, Aaron Burckhard
