Published on Jan 11, 1999
I think the original reason I went out and bought
Nevermind, the major label debut by Seattle grungesters
Nirvana, was because I was curious. My family didn’t have cable, so
it wasn’t like I could turn the TV on and see the video. I guess I
could have turned on the radio… why I didn’t, I don’t know.
The first time I heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” blaring out of
my speakers, I thought it was okay, but I didn’t understand why
people were going ga-ga over this band. I put the tape aside for a
while… a week later, I found myself listening to it on a regular
basis.
Of all the groups that came out of Seattle during the grunge
fad, Kurt Cobain and crew probably put out the best album of the
whole scene in
Nevermind. Wrapping up anger, angst and strung-out energy
into one distortion-laden package, they created an album that is
already being touted as a classic.
No doubt about it, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is a song that
defined the whole scene. Part nonsensical (“A mulatto / An albino /
A mosquito / My libido”), part crunch provided by Cobain, bassist
Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl — all honesty. Nirvana
captured the moment so well in these four minutes in a way that I
don’t think any other band ever came close to.
If this were the only shining moment on
Nevermind, it would still be worthy of praise. But Nirvana
follow that up with a slew of songs that hold their own just as
well. “Come As You Are” shows that Cobain and crew don’t always
need the guitars cranked up to get your attention — a fact they
prove later on the album with the acoustic numbers “Polly” and
“Something In The Way.” (In a sense, the acoustic setting of
“Polly” helps to hammer home the sinister theme of the song.)
Nirvana also shows on
Nevermind that they know the importance of the occasional
harmony vocals (“In Bloom”, “On A Plain”), as well as when to just
throw caution to the wind and charge full throttle into the abyss
(“Bloom”, “Territorial Pissings”). Fact is, there is not one bad
moment on this album. Cobain and crew’s songwriting was at its peak
with this album – and, in a sense, that also proved to be their
downfall. As a band, Nirvana was expected to create albums that
were on par with
Nevermind; as an anti-hero, Cobain unexpectedly struck a
vein of disenfranchised members of Generation X who now looked to
him as a role model, a role he was never comfortable with.
The only drawback — if there is one — to
Nevermind is that you have to be patient with the shifts in
styles that Nirvana undertake from song to song. Going from the
surprise poppiness of “Lounge Act” to the orgasmic release of “Stay
Away,” or from the rumblings of “Lithium” to the gentleness of
“Polly,” sometimes it feels like you can never get settled into the
album. (And, I’m sorry, but I have to cringe every time I hear in
“Come As You Are”: “And I swear that I don’t have a gun.” After the
suicide of Cobain, those lyrics are a bit ironic — and painful —
to listen to.)
Nevermind is the masterpiece of the grunge era of rock – and
just may be compared in the same breath to albums like
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in about ten years.
Whatever the case, it’s worth your attention now.