52 Albums That Shaped My Life - #35

Nirvana – Nevermind

(DGC, 1991)

Buy the album here

Some reviews don’t really need to be written…. but here goes anyway. 

Discovering your new favourite band by finding out some rock star died is a strange way to experience a transformative cultural moment, but it’s a moment that changed the trajectory of my life.  It didn’t save me from prison or anything like that, but it did save me from a potential lifetime of pop dross, a fate worse than prison, and steered me through the dangerous “Oasis Years” which still haunt me.  I’m hopeful some similarly dull, middle class teenager is being saved right now by Motörhead, Bowie, or Prince.  Thanks to Nirvana, I’m sitting in an overpriced coffee shop with a flat white and carrot cake slice, writing a blog post on my fancy laptop…. but I’m wearing an Exhorder “Slaughter In The Vatican” T-shirt rather than a polo shirt.  Saved.

Nevermind still kicks you in the head all these years on.  Butch Vig’s production smoothed the edges too much (he is no Steve Albini), but Kurt Cobain’s ripped-up-larynx vocal tears through the veneer, grabs you by the ears and pulls you violently into this world of self-loathing and not-quite-teenage angst.  It is filled with anthems that have come to define a generation’s young adult development and sense of rebellion.  The image of Nirvana playing to a hazy gym-full of moshing kids in the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is for teenagers of the 90s what Elvis dancing was for kids of the 50s or the anti-establishment aggression of the Sex Pistols was for teenagers in the 70s.  “Smells Like Teen Spirit” makes it clear that Nirvana were moving towards the middle.  Gone were the bass-heavy, sludgy sounds of the Melvins-esque debut Bleach, and in their place was crisp production, catchy riffs, and choruses that manage to rhyme “mosquito” and “libido”.  The first awesome crack of Dave Grohl’s drums drives home how much he meant to the band’s development, and Krist Novoselic’s strong bass sound allows Nirvana to retain that punk influence that helped grunge to transcend genres.

It’s Novoselic’s atmospheric bass sound that is the highlight of the ironically upbeat “In Bloom” with its glorious chorus attacking all the latch-on fans that had come their way.  The clash on this album between its noticeably more polished and anthemic sound and Cobain’s desire to be true to his music and underground leanings is hard to reconcile, especially in light of his suicide and the self-loathing that may have driven him to that point, but it does produce moments of real brilliance.

Where hits like “Come As You Are” and “Drain You” brought millions of new fans, fuzzed-out bastard-child-of-sludge-and-punk tracks like “Breed” remind me now that Nirvana didn’t want to be your friend.  Its a-tonal verse vocal, bulging bass sound, and rancid guitar scratching are deployed to test new fans.  “Territorial Pissings” continues these tests with a furious attempt to make sense of masculinity by screaming until your throat bleeds.  Cobain’s voice completely cracking with anguished passion at the end of this punk attack followed immediately by the delightful vocal opening of “Drain You” is all you need to know about Nirvana: Equally capable of smashing their instruments in rebellious confusion and writing near-perfect pop songs.

The bizarre, unsettling bridge section of “Drain You” is the dark undercurrent upon which this hit album flows breaking through.  Its presence is disguised by catchy choruses and the sheer success of the album, but there is no doubting it’s there.  From the lascivious-feeling “Lounge Act” with its invigoratingly screeched yet melodic vocal to the obvious anti-social, anti-commercialism of “Stay Away” which seems to falter under its own intensity, Nevermind is seemingly all parts of the cultural spectrum at once: borne from defiance and rage yet accessible and ripe for assimilation into the mainstream.

My feelings towards this album will never be clear, but in ending with “Something In The Way” Nirvana left me believing that more than anything they wanted to give a middle finger to the world and do whatever came to them in the moment.  It is the dreary counterpoint to the album’s anthemic opening track, and fills me with joy every time I listen to it.  It’s a band saying that if you’ve made it this far, you can hear what we want to tell you.  It is Kurt Cobain drawing you in to his world.