Unlike most members of the Important, Era-Defining Albums Club, Nirvanas Nevermind isnt particularly innovative. It didnt invent a new vocabulary for lyrics, or push the music forward in any real wayKurt Cobain even gave the Pixies credit for the quiet verse/loud chorus formula the album popularized. Nevermind is merely an excellent guitar-rock album whose importance lies in the context of the time it was released: In September 1991, this kind of music simply wasnt being made or heard in the mainstream of pop culture. And this is something newcomers to Nevermind can still appreciate, because 20 years later, the albums combination of righteous countercultural fury and carefully constructed hooks is still a rarity on the pop airwaves. After all this time, Nevermind still has the power to win hearts and blow minds.
The new two-disc reissue of Nevermind attempts to put the album in a different kind of context, augmenting the original 12-track record with 27 B-sides, outtakes, alternate versions, and live cuts that illustrate how Nirvanas success wasnt exactly the happy accident its remembered as. Coming off its unruly 1989 debut, Bleach, Nirvana was a purposely ragged but tuneful outfit that hammered all kinds of rough patches into Cobains indelible melodies. That band can be heard on early versions of future Nevermind classics like In Bloom and Stay Away , which sound like sludgy Raspberries covers done in the style of Masters Of Reality-era Black Sabbath.
If Nevermind had sounded like that, the record would probably still live on as an underground classic, but its doubtful that it wouldve crossed over to heavy-rotation-on-MTV status. Cobain had fantastic songs to burn at the timeevidenced by toss-offs like the positively metallic Curmudgeon and the should-be hit Sappy, later released on 1993s No Alternative compilationbut he needed slick packaging to sell Nevermind to the masses.
Heard against the noisy extra tracksparticularly the boombox rehearsal versions of Territorial Pissings and Lounge ActNevermind is as sterling as the first Boston album. While the band mightve wished at the time that Nevermind sounded more like Scratch Acid , producer Butch Vig gave the music the pristine treatment it demanded; songs like Lithium and Come As You Are deserved to become sing-along standards enjoyed by everybody, not just a select cadre of fans in the Pacific Northwest.
And what of Neverminds most famous song, the one that alludes to a kiddie underarm deodorant thats long since been forgotten? It might be hard to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit with fresh ears, but the Nevermind reissue does succeed at putting Nirvana in its proper place, paying respect to the legend and the loud, irreverent, humanistic rock n roll band behind it.
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