Day 0782 - MTV Unplugged in New York

Nirvana "MTV Unplugged in New York" (1994) - got it

 
The write-up in the book seems to express surprise at the idea that acoustic grunge could work... which is odd as Pearl Jam had already done a session for MTV's (at the time) popular unplugged segment a couple of years earlier.

Regardless, Nirvana were approached to do an unplugged show.  Their show was unconventional in that the band weren't just trotting out their hits on acoustic guitar.  In amongst a selection of Nirvana tracks were covers of songs by the Vaselines, David Bowie and 3 songs by the Meat Puppets.  Two members of the Meat Puppets joined the band on stage to play and Mark Lanegan was invited but declined, which lends credence to the suggestion that Kurt wanted to use Nirvana's celebrity to help gain exposure for his friends and artists he enjoyed.

The set closes with a bleeding-throated rendition of bluesman Lead Belly's take on the traditional track "Where did you sleep last night".   That seems an appropriate choice because the acoustic approach to Nirvana's sound mixed with Krist Novoselic's heavy bass gives everything a kind of heavy, rootsy blues sound.

Perhaps Kurt's voice had always been this raw, ragged (yet strong) and emotive, but recast without loud distorted guitars to hide behind, it is quite striking.

While the posthumous track "You know you're right" suggested that they probably would have continued with their loud-quiet-loud approach to songwriting, it's great that this album exists and it's nice to think that it could have led to a new direction for the band.

Day 0742 - In Utero

 Nirvana “In Utero” (1993) – got it

 

In my teens I was moving from mostly listening to my parents’ music, to getting into louder, heavier stuff.  There were a few albums (on cassette back then) from my brother’s collection that were starting to inform that transition.  Amongst these were the Nirvana albums “Nevermind” and “In Utero”.

With “In Utero” Nirvana were in the unenviable position of trying to follow up an album that had been a huge smash-hit, had reignited mainstream interest in punk and had helped helm the grunge movement… so, no pressure.

The band looked to kick back against the polished sound of “Nevermind” by hiring ‘punk’ producer Steve Albini.  Albini had worked with the Pixies, of whom Kurt Cobain was a fan, so that probably fed into the decision.  

The band had told Albini that they wanted to make a raw and uncompromising album, and he obliged, but it seems as though, once the record company heard the rough mixes, the compromises started.  Albini refused the band's request to remix the album, leading to several tracks being given a polishing remix by R.E.M’s regular producer Scott Lit.

You can kind of hear the difference between the two approaches.  Single “Heart Shaped Box” has a clean drum sound and clear vocals, whereas something like noisy opener “Serve the Servants” still has its roomy, noisy ambience favoured by Albini.  The raw, heartfelt "All apologies" sounds like the best of both worlds, with clean melodic, string-backed verses and raucous, 'recorded-in-someone's-bathroom' distorted choruses.

All in all, I feel like the mix and compromise makes the album more interesting than uneven.   More interesting than either another completely polished, ‘clean’ sounding Nevermind-esque recording, or a completely dirty, punky Albini-style record.

In true 1990s rock style, the album closes with a period of silence followed by the then-popular secret hidden track.

Day 0686 - Nevermind

Nirvana "Nevermind" (1991) - got it

One of those albums where so much has been said about it, every song has been picked over musically and lyrically like a day-old carcass in the Serengeti.

It was certainly an early discovery for me.  My brother had a copy on cassette, and while I wasn't really a fan of "loud music" at that point, this one had enough melody and I found Kurt's voice interesting enough that it won me over.  I listened to it quite a bit and rewinding it to listen again and again... then one day I was doubly rewarded when I actually bothered to turn the tape over and listen to the second side too!

It's an album (and band) of contrasts and contradictions.  From the loud/quiet/loud formula that the band specialised in, to Cobain wanting to revel in punk rock, even as he wrote snappy pop songs.  Producer Butch Vig takes the songs from close, tight intimate sounds to booming, stadium-ready thump, often within the same song (such as on ‘Drain You’).

Dave Grohl is now 'the nicest guy in rock' or 'an embarrassing twat' depending who you ask, but as a new addition to the band, he really helps anchor this album.  With his able backing vocals adding a little something extra to the mix, and of course his bombastic drumming.  A drummer friend of mine once pointed out that Grohl is a great songwriting drummer.  He doesn't play a million fills and hugely intricate parts, but what he plays locks into and complements the songs.  A lot of his parts for this album if you heard them in isolation you'd likely still be able to pick the song it came from.

The single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” launched the album, band and the newish ‘grunge’ genre into the commercial stratosphere. Arguably, here Cobain achieved his goal of mixing the Pixies, the Melvins and the Beatles, but his punk guilt was triggered by a feeling that the album was too polished and almost too successful.  More successful  than many of his influences (which is possibly one reason why he devoted a decent portion of Nirvana's high-profile MTV Unplugged show to covering other artists).    With the next studio album 'In Utero' he would try and bring a bit more noisy punky squalor to proceedings.