Anyone who followed Nirvana for the few turbulent years they
\nwere an active band is probably thinking to themselves, “Why should
\nI pay good money for an album with one new song?”<\/p>\n
In truth,
\nNirvana<\/i> – the first compilation of a series promised by the
\nsurviving members and Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain’s widow – really
\nhas three songs which may not be familiar to many people. But even
\nthe material with which a generation has grown up to will find this
\ndisc to be more hit than miss in terms of what’s included.<\/p>\n
The centerpiece is “You Know You’re Right,” a song which turned
\nout to be the final Nirvana recording session ever. Had songs like
\nthis been included on
\nIn Utero<\/i>, there’s no doubt in my mind that album would have
\nbeen improved a hundredfold. The angst of Cobain is captured in his
\nhowled vocals, followed by the drawn-out calls of “pain” in the
\nchorus. In retrospect, someone should have recognized this song as
\na call for help, but you know the old saying about hindsight.
\nCaptured in total simplicity (with only a few overdubs), this could
\nwell be the best song Nirvana ever recorded.<\/p>\n
The gears immediately switch from the band’s final song to their
\nfirst album
\nBleach<\/i>, represented by the lone track “About A Girl.” I
\nnever really liked
\nBleach<\/i>, though it does sound like something different has
\nbeen done with this track. It seems to have a bit more of a jangly
\nedge to it. Or, maybe I just need to dust off my copy more
\noften.<\/p>\n
The version of “Been A Son” is the original take, not the one
\nincluded on
\nIncesticide<\/i> – and while I still like the “newer” version
\nbetter, I have yet to hear a take of this track I didn’t like.
\nHearing “Sliver” again is also a treat – though I wonder why “Aero
\nZeppelin” didn’t make the cut for this compilation.<\/p>\n
Both
\nNevermind<\/i> and
\nIn Utero<\/i> get the main focus of attention, with four tracks
\nculled from each disc. Granted, for a Nirvana “best-of”, you can’t
\nnot include tracks like “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Lithium,” “Come
\nAs You Are,” “Heart-Shaped Box” and “Dumb.” Perhaps it’s because
\nthe typical radio listener has been inundated with these songs for
\nthe past 10 or so years that it almost feels anti-climatic to hear
\nthem in such a setting. On the other hand, you finally are able to
\nseparate the good from the chaff on
\nIn Utero<\/i>.<\/p>\n
It’s interesting to note that of Nirvana’s two live albums,
\nFrom The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah<\/i> is ignored, while
\nMTV Unplugged In New York<\/i> gets two tracks (and I can’t argue
\nwith the inclusion of “The Man Who Sold The World”).<\/p>\n
So how does
\nNirvana<\/i> hold up to the entire body of work? The truth is:
\npretty well. Worth the admission price alone for “You Know You’re
\nRight,” and amazing to hear what
\nIn Utero<\/i> could have been like with more production (courtesy
\nof Scott Litt’s remix of “Pennyroyal Tea”), this disc recaps a lot
\nof what many of us already know. If anything, hearing these 14
\ntracks makes me a little sad, and left to wonder what might have
\nbecome of Nirvana had Cobain not taken his life in 1994.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5680],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-37532","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-nirvana","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37532"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37532"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}