Album: Nevermind
Artist: Nirvana
Artist: Nirvana
Born: Aberdeen, Washington
Released: September 1991
Genre: Grunge
Nirvana's performance on The Word was when I first started taking notice of grunge. As documented in The Year That Punk Broke, which trailed Sonic Youth and Nirvana on tour around Europe, 1991 was the year that grunge went mainstream, the "punk" in the title a reference to this American musical movement that had all the energy and excitement of British punk. Nirvana were the most high-profile band in this burgeoning Seattle-based scene (which included Mudhoney, Soundgarden, etc) and Kurt Cobain was anointed spokesman of Generation X, a vague demographic term for the nihilistic slackers who reached adulthood in the 80s and 90s. With grunge and riot grrrl, all of a sudden the Pacific Northwest was a hotbed of musical activity. As this list of Cobain's favourite albums shows, he was influenced by the proto-punk of the Stooges and the hardcore punk of Black Flag, but also the post-punk of Public Image Ltd and Gang of Four. REM, Daniel Johnston and more obscure indie acts also feature, and this mixture of punk and melodic indie came to define Nirvana's sound. Cobain may have come to dislike the radio-friendly sheen of Nevermind, a perceived wrong that he righted on follow-up In Utero, but he was also too modest to extol the record's undoubted virtues: Nevermind is one of the truly great rock LPs, which came to define an emerging genre but also led to its demise by bringing it overground. Part of Cobain's genius lay in his self-awareness, and In Bloom brilliantly sends up the hangers-on that a band accumulates when it generates a buzz (music industry execs, fans jumping on the bandwagon). Written after the release of the group's first album, Bleach, the lyrics were actually even more appropriate after the giddy success of Nevermind.
Smells Like Teen Spirit, which opens the record, was the single that launched Nirvana into the limelight worldwide. The quiet / loud dynamic, a trick that Nirvana picked up from the Pixies, was used to dramatic effect on Smells Like Teen Spirit, and the apathetic, hard-to-decipher lyrics ("Here we are now, entertain us", "Oh well, whatever, nevermind") connected with the MTV generation. Nirvana conjured up another classic rock guitar riff with Come As You Are, which was a Top 10 hit single in the UK in early 1992, but in fairness it was a clever reworking of Killing Joke's Eighties with obscure lyrics about not having a gun. There are more innovative moments on the record, like the songwriting of Lithium (about how religion can save some from suicidal tendencies) and Polly (tale of a kidnapped girl), both dealing with dark themes with real intensity. Territorial Pissings is one of the most sonically fierce songs, featuring noisy Sonic Youth-style guitars, throat-shredding vocals and athletic drumming from Dave Grohl. Side 2 is generally lighter on hits but a better reflection of Nirvana's raw early sound, finishing with two of the album's most powerful tracks, On A Plain and Something In The Way, the latter one of my favourite Nirvana songs. There's a sadness in those strings that's reminiscent of Nick Drake, a dark emotional undertow that's unmistakeable. So many innovative "alternative" rock records were coming out of America at this time -- some not mentioned on this blog include Fugazi's Repeater, the Melvins' Lysol and Unwound's Fake Train -- but it was Nevermind that broke the mould.
Nirvana's performance on The Word was when I first started taking notice of grunge. As documented in The Year That Punk Broke, which trailed Sonic Youth and Nirvana on tour around Europe, 1991 was the year that grunge went mainstream, the "punk" in the title a reference to this American musical movement that had all the energy and excitement of British punk. Nirvana were the most high-profile band in this burgeoning Seattle-based scene (which included Mudhoney, Soundgarden, etc) and Kurt Cobain was anointed spokesman of Generation X, a vague demographic term for the nihilistic slackers who reached adulthood in the 80s and 90s. With grunge and riot grrrl, all of a sudden the Pacific Northwest was a hotbed of musical activity. As this list of Cobain's favourite albums shows, he was influenced by the proto-punk of the Stooges and the hardcore punk of Black Flag, but also the post-punk of Public Image Ltd and Gang of Four. REM, Daniel Johnston and more obscure indie acts also feature, and this mixture of punk and melodic indie came to define Nirvana's sound. Cobain may have come to dislike the radio-friendly sheen of Nevermind, a perceived wrong that he righted on follow-up In Utero, but he was also too modest to extol the record's undoubted virtues: Nevermind is one of the truly great rock LPs, which came to define an emerging genre but also led to its demise by bringing it overground. Part of Cobain's genius lay in his self-awareness, and In Bloom brilliantly sends up the hangers-on that a band accumulates when it generates a buzz (music industry execs, fans jumping on the bandwagon). Written after the release of the group's first album, Bleach, the lyrics were actually even more appropriate after the giddy success of Nevermind.
Smells Like Teen Spirit, which opens the record, was the single that launched Nirvana into the limelight worldwide. The quiet / loud dynamic, a trick that Nirvana picked up from the Pixies, was used to dramatic effect on Smells Like Teen Spirit, and the apathetic, hard-to-decipher lyrics ("Here we are now, entertain us", "Oh well, whatever, nevermind") connected with the MTV generation. Nirvana conjured up another classic rock guitar riff with Come As You Are, which was a Top 10 hit single in the UK in early 1992, but in fairness it was a clever reworking of Killing Joke's Eighties with obscure lyrics about not having a gun. There are more innovative moments on the record, like the songwriting of Lithium (about how religion can save some from suicidal tendencies) and Polly (tale of a kidnapped girl), both dealing with dark themes with real intensity. Territorial Pissings is one of the most sonically fierce songs, featuring noisy Sonic Youth-style guitars, throat-shredding vocals and athletic drumming from Dave Grohl. Side 2 is generally lighter on hits but a better reflection of Nirvana's raw early sound, finishing with two of the album's most powerful tracks, On A Plain and Something In The Way, the latter one of my favourite Nirvana songs. There's a sadness in those strings that's reminiscent of Nick Drake, a dark emotional undertow that's unmistakeable. So many innovative "alternative" rock records were coming out of America at this time -- some not mentioned on this blog include Fugazi's Repeater, the Melvins' Lysol and Unwound's Fake Train -- but it was Nevermind that broke the mould.
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