Yeah, Kurt was a sell-out, couldn’t play guitar, and can’t sing blah blah blah. Let me just say this before I get on to this, even though Kurt wasn’t an amazing singer or guitarist, he was a decent songwriter and that is Nirvana’s high point. All the songs are catchy and fun to listen to, that’s why it appeals to every teenager out there. But still, this album is my favourite, taking a bit of shine from Nevermind and the rawness of In Utero; you can tell what this album is like. It’s not even a studio album, more of a b-sides collection and wow, what a collection. The album contains b-sides, BBC sessions, demo recordings, outtakes and things that was never before available. This is great album and is fun to listen to all the way through. You can really see where Nirvana came from with this album. Released a year after the phenomenal Nevermind, this album was very different from the lush production and fuzzy atmosphere that album had.
This is raw and strips down to Kurt’s deepest feelings. I know about him not being a good guitarist or singer but he showed a lot of emotion in his performance and had great stage presence, I like the guy, he wrote great songs. Nothing legendary but just great songs from this album. Here we have Incesticide, a cracker of an album. It brings out a true grunge atmosphere with a bunch of highlights. A few tracks that intrigued me were
Molly’s Lips and
Son of a Gun which were Vaselines songs (my aunt knew that band, old Glasgow band from around here). These songs have great vocals from Kurt, not in that he actual sings but it fits the songs.
Molly’s Lips is a simple punk song with two chords throughout.
Son of a Gun is really catchy and I can’t help but sing along with it when it comes on. Fans of Nevermind will also notice that
Polly is on here, but it’s not the clean, slow song that was put on Nevermind, this version is fast and punk. I like this version better as the original
Polly is quite boring. This album is very raw with not much studio work has been put on them. Maybe on Kurt’s vocals (he always expressed himself through his voice in concert, which means he shouts a lot of lyrics out and such) but I don’t think the studio changed a lot of the album.
The album has quite a good opener,
Dive starts off with a smooth, groovy bass line and then proceeds into a slow, winding verse. The chorus consists of Kurt singing, “Dive, dive, dive in me!” I quite like the song but it does get stale after a while. Fans of Nirvana will probably have heard
Sliver even if they don’t have the album. It is probably the most popular song off this. The song is very simple in structure (verse, chorus, verse, chorus) and isn’t that difficult to learn. Overall, an effective song but it is slightly overrated.
Stain is quite the grunge song and is Kurt’s cry of hating himself (which is shown in a lot of Nirvana’s songs). “And he never bleeds and he never f*cks and he never leaves cause he’s got bad luck” and lyrics like that infest the chorus. I really like this song and it smoothes out so well. It is one of my favourites on the album.
Downer could probably be seen as filler but golly, what filler! The verses are just bass playing and Kurt almost talking. The chorus is very punk like and quite catchy. This one is on Bleach but I’m not sure why it’s on here. Oh well, just another chance for us to hear this brilliant song.
Hairspray Queen is probably the weirdest song on here, Kurt uses a lot of noise like he does on In Utero. Kurt’s vocals are very awkward, he sings very high and out of key just to be artistic. I dig the song and the vocals do add to it. The song is a bit repetitive and is quite long for an Nirvana song. If it were count down by a minute then this song would be perfect.
Big Long Now could be taken off a Melvins album (one of Kurt’s favourite bands). It is very slow and drowsy like, Kurt shows a lot of emotion in this song. I love the chorus, really brings out Kurt’s feelings. It may not be the Nirvana we all know but is sure an amazing song.
Aneurysm is my favourite Nirvana song and it’s a perfect close to the album. It starts out with some strummed power chords from Kurt and goes into this noise thing. The verses are very simple but the chorus is something you can’t resist. I love it when Kurt sings, “she keeps it pumping straight to my heart”.
Kurt may not be the best musician in the world; he’d rather keep to his power chords. But I can’t complain, it sounds good so why care about technicality? It sounds good and his tone is very smooth. Krist is a lanky bassist, who has some great bass lines and he is sometimes the driving force behind a song (for an example, try
Downer or
Hairspray Queen). He’s a good bassist and shines a lot on the album. I do believe Chad Channing and Dave Grohl both share drum duties in some of the songs. Dave didn’t join the band till Nevermind and some of the songs were made before that album so it’s mostly Chad Channing and some other people on the drums. The drums were of a very high standard, lots of nice beats and fills here and there. I don’t have that high expectations of this band but the drums did surpass them totally. I recommend this for fans of the grunge scene, alternative rock and punk. I don’t recommend this to people who think they are too cool for a mainstream band as Nirvana are actually quite good when you take the time to listen to them. This album surpassed my expectations, it won’t change the world but if you’re looking for a fun punk album to relax to then this gets my biggest recommendations.
