I hear a lot of people tell me they hate Kurt Cobain’s voice and how strangled and out of tune it is, how they hate his noisy guitar solos, how they find the feedback often heard annoying. Well, that’s not here. This is basically Nirvana without the noise. They actually sound really good without noise. It just prooves that Nirvana were a talented band, maybe not with making up intricate and technical riffs and solos but sound wise and in writing a song that didn't necessarily need a lot of distortion. This cd really makes me respect this band a lot more than I did before.
Let’s start the review. The songs on here are all played really nicely and sound great, but there are a few moments that kind of need the distortion to have their energy. Like on Come As You Are during the solo it can sound very repetitive and annoying without its energy and noise. It’s a repetitive solo without the noise and when you take the noise out you see how much more annoying it can be. I think Nirvana were aware of the fact that some solos would be a little boring because they took the one from Pennyroyal Tea out. That solo is one of my favorites but it wouldn’t have been very good, unless they screwed around with it. The solo on About A Girl, while being a great solo, does lose some of it’s appeal to me without distortion, but it is still a great sounding solo. The solo during The Man Who Sold The World is simply Kurt’s best on here. A song already bursting with emotion is given even more by a sad soft and pretty epic solo. It’s one of Kurt’s best.
I find the balance and volume of each instrument is really good. Like the drums are at perfect loudness, they keep the beat without overtaking anything. And the bass is great, like on the studio recording of Come As You Are you can’t tell when the bass enters (guitar is in the intro and don’t argue because I know my nirvana songs) but on here you can hear the fullness the bass adds. Also this is proof that the guitar doesn’t overtake anything, but really if it did this would have been one ***ty cd, in my opinion. All Apologies is a great track on here. It shows the balance of volume nicely. The bass and it’s simple and nicely fitting riffs, the drums and their great beat, and the excellent guitar work. It’s a very emotional song and the instruments accentuate the emotion very nicely.
The excellent musicianship on here is really nice, too. Of course it’s not amazing guitar work like on Eric Clapton’s unplugged, but it still deserves some attention. I find the Meat Puppets covers have the best guitar work. I’m not quite sure which brother plays lead for the meat puppets but whoever does it does a hell of a job. Like on Plateau, the finger picking sounds really nice. It really fits the songs strange feeling. Also Krist’s accordion playing on Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbem (The Vaselines) is really great and surprised me. I was very shocked to hear an accordion and never knew how nice it could sound as I’ve only heard it in a Weird Al song. He has a really beautiful part during the bridge that takes your breath away. He kind of takes over with it when he plays but that’s not a bad thing, it sounds great and was an excellent idea to put it in. I think Dave did a great job keeping the beat behind the drums but I do wish he had more fills. Especially on The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie). There are so many chances in which he could have put some excellent fills but he doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong he’s a great drummer but I’ve heard much better playing from him, but I guess he does his job as he keeps the beat and stays on time throughout the whole performance.
The best thing about this cd is the amount of emotion on it. This cd can be very depressing, and I understand that’s why a lot of people dislike it, but I don’t find depressing music makes me depressed. Kurt shows so much emotion during the songs and the instruments only add to it. The Man Who Sold The World is a good example of a song with a lot of emotion. Kurt sounds kind of desperate during the verse, and a little bit more upbeat during the chorus as the instruments do a little scale and Pat plays the matching chords. The main riff also has nice emotion put into, it sounds great with the distortion on it. Then when the solo hits, it just makes this amazing cover even better. And Kurt didn’t screw it up. Lake of Fire is also got a great emotion. Kurt screams but it’s that kinds of screaming that’s not annoying, like it’s not really strangled and out of tune. He doesn’t sound sad on here, he kind of sounds like he’s a little bit happy, but then comes the bridge and he sings in a sad tone that soon turn back into it’s somewhat happiness and goes into the verse. Then comes an excellent solo. It’s a very folky solo that is really nice for the song. And how can I talk about emotion without talking about the amazing song that got me into Leadbelly. Where Did You Sleep Last Night. Simple guitar chords, and an excellent bass line that is heard just enough. The depression is only more when the mournfulness of the cello enters. This is a much more depressing version of the song than Leadbelly’s. His was much more upbeat. Then after a brief instrumental break Kurt goes into his best vocal performance on this whole cd. He almost whispers the main verse and you can barely hear the guitar and bass. Then BOOM he does an amazing change to the most emotional screaming (the good kind) and all the instruments get louder to add to the epicness of the song, and finish off the cd in the absolute perfect way. Wait, nope. The instruments are still going. This doesn’t completely ruin how amazing it would have been to end on such a great note but it would have been better.
Overall this cd really shows how sad Kurt was at the time. He shows so much emotion and if that emotion wasn’t there this surely wouldn’t be near as good. His vocal performance is excellent, his playing is great, the bass is nicely audible, the drums, while they could have had more fills, were great in keeping a nice beat, and the rhythm guitar of Pat’s was nice and did the job. But the best guitar performance was definitely on the three Meat Puppets songs.
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Nirvana:
Kurt Cobain: Guitar, Vocals
Krist Novoselic: Bass, Guitar, and Accordion
Dave Grohl: Drums, Bass, and Vocals
Pat Smear: Guitar
Also:
Lori Goldston: Cello
Curt Kirkwood(Meat Puppets): Guitar
Cris Kirkwood(Meat Puppets): Guitar, Vocals
