![]() ![]() Listen to the turbo-charged ‘Stay Away’, perhaps the only weak link here, or ‘On A Plain’, a raw blister of pain. Nirvana have power, oozing out of every guitar line and ripped snare – just check side two’s opener, ‘Territorial Pissings’, which wouldn’t have been out of place on Metallica’s latest, or the hyper-ventilating ‘Lithium’. Nirvana (produced here by Killdozer’s man Butch Vig) have more going for them than that. And how about the acoustic ‘Polly’, with Chris’s gentle lead bass, which finishes side one? But we’re merely talking melody and harmony and tunefulness and all those kind of things you’d more commonly associate with some band with their toes stuck deeply in the Sixties. Songs such as the two which follow it and make for as strong an opening sequence since that of The Jam’s Setting Sons: the menacingly poignant ‘In Bloom’ with its rapture-full hook line, “He’s the one/Who likes all our pretty songs/And he likes to sing along/And he likes to shoot his gun/But he don’t know what it means” and the unfathomably wistful ‘Come As You Are’. There will not be a better straight-ahead rock album than Nevermind released all year.Ī lot of this is down to the sheer melody of the songs – songs such as the outrageously plangent ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, which opens this album and blows the listener straight out of the water. Forget all the prejudices you may or may not have about bands whose origins may or may not lie in Seattle’s Sub Pop scene of three years back. And now Nevermind, Nirvana’s startling follow-up to their 1989 debut Bleach. ![]() The three finest albums to come out of what could be loosely termed ‘the US Collegiate Scene’ have all been made by trios. Trios strip music down to its basics and then, having worked out what it is that makes it work, build it up again with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of effect. ![]() Think of The Jam, Young Marble Giants, Dinosaur Jr, Hüsker Dü, Cream, The Slits … Nirvana. When they get the balance right, there’s no stopping them. Note the line about Killdozer’s man Butch Vig. In celebration, I’ve decided to reprint my original review. Much of this is down to Scott’s incredible evaluation of the album elsewhere on Collapse Board. It’s taken me nearly two decades to admit to liking Nevermind in public again. ![]() Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page Send by Email ![]()
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