Cobain’s voice carries us through his complex interior world like a spirit guide.
Power trio: (l-r) Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic
It has been 20 years since Kurt Cobain and company revitalised an increasingly
moribund rock genre with their breakout grunge masterpiece. Now here it
comes again, repackaged and extended as a fetishised object of nostalgia
with out-takes and alternate versions, from a standard digital remaster of
the original to a four-CD, one-DVD “super-deluxe” box set.
Perusing the original inner-sleeve photos, it immediately strikes me that
Cobain is more smiling, podgy and playful than his reconfigured image as a
doomed and tortured artist allows. There is a mischievousness to Nevermind,
immediately apparent on the album cover photo of a baby swimming after a
dollar bill on a hook.
But there is anger too, and sadness at the corruption of innocence, emotions
which surge out of the speakers in the thrilling electric charge of Smells
Like Teen Spirit.
The elusive yet somehow tangible truths in Cobain’s songwriting are located in
the sound and the fury, the hurting tone of his voice, the alternately
deadpan introversion and raw rage of his delivery. Addressing (and rebelling
against) generational despair, Nirvana perform as if it is a matter of life
and death, which retrospect tells us it really was.
For collectors, there’s a host of interesting additional material, B-sides and radio sessions that display the band in unadorned attack mode. Producer Butch Vig’s original mixes are muddier and more in keeping with the punk aesthetic of Nirvana’s 1989 debut, Bleach, lacking the commercial polish applied by Andy Wallace.
Perhaps, released in this form, Nevermind’s 30-million-selling global success might have been more measured, and Cobain’s response to it less self-destructive. But it is all speculation. The songs remain the same, boiling rock’s colours down to something almost monochrome, primal and essential. Nirvana cut through the self-consciousness of Eighties rock with the pop nous of Abba. These songs are short, melodic and hook-laden, performed with distilled economy by a perfectly balanced power trio.
Krist Novoselic’s bass lines are liquid and mesmerising, Dave Grohl’s drums are frenzied yet direct, the grungy fuzz of Cobain’s rhythm guitar is adorned by elegant, fluid lead motifs. Much was made of the group’s loud/quiet dynamic, but their simple template embodies a world of contrasts: intimate and expansive, melancholic and furious, deep and meaningless. And Cobain’s voice carries us through his complex interior world like a spirit guide.
It’s an album undiminished by time, that can still make me want to throw myself around an imaginary mosh pit or curl up in a fetal ball.
How the music scene could do with something like this right now.
Download this: Something in the Way (The Boombox Rehearsals)
For collectors, there’s a host of interesting additional material, B-sides and radio sessions that display the band in unadorned attack mode. Producer Butch Vig’s original mixes are muddier and more in keeping with the punk aesthetic of Nirvana’s 1989 debut, Bleach, lacking the commercial polish applied by Andy Wallace.
Perhaps, released in this form, Nevermind’s 30-million-selling global success might have been more measured, and Cobain’s response to it less self-destructive. But it is all speculation. The songs remain the same, boiling rock’s colours down to something almost monochrome, primal and essential. Nirvana cut through the self-consciousness of Eighties rock with the pop nous of Abba. These songs are short, melodic and hook-laden, performed with distilled economy by a perfectly balanced power trio.
Krist Novoselic’s bass lines are liquid and mesmerising, Dave Grohl’s drums are frenzied yet direct, the grungy fuzz of Cobain’s rhythm guitar is adorned by elegant, fluid lead motifs. Much was made of the group’s loud/quiet dynamic, but their simple template embodies a world of contrasts: intimate and expansive, melancholic and furious, deep and meaningless. And Cobain’s voice carries us through his complex interior world like a spirit guide.
It’s an album undiminished by time, that can still make me want to throw myself around an imaginary mosh pit or curl up in a fetal ball.
How the music scene could do with something like this right now.
Download this: Something in the Way (The Boombox Rehearsals)
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