Album: MTV Unplugged In New York
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Kurt Cobain's death in 1994 was tragic enough, but what's also sad is the way this posthumous release shows how Nirvana's development away from its grungy, noise rock beginnings into more nuanced, complex songwriting was cut short in its prime. The other outstanding feature of this record is that it essentially reinvented the MTV Unplugged tradition, thanks to Cobain's decision to avoid playing the band's hit singles, instead focusing on lesser-known album tracks and covers of songs by artists they loved. This raised eyebrows among the show producers at MTV, but Nirvana held firm to their principles and invited a few members of obscure indie rock band Meat Puppets (brothers Curt & Cris Kirkwood) and cellist Lori Goldston onto the stage with them. Part of the inspiration for this decision was listening to Mark Lanegan's 1990 solo album, The Winding Sheet, an acoustic album that also features an original cover of Where Did You Sleep Last Night, a Lead Belly song that appears here. The live performance of this album appeared on MTV in late 1993, but the CD version wasn't released until six months after Kurt Cobain's death. Many artists, from Bob Dylan to Page & Plant, would record their own Unplugged sets based on the success of this Nirvana performance.
Six of the record's 14 songs are cover versions, with four songs from Nevermind, three from recently released In Utero and just one from the band's first album, Bleach. About A Girl was the lone Bleach song and it opens the Unplugged performance, pointing to Cobain's love of REM and the fact that, though grunge was the scene where he made his name, his horizons were actually much wider. Come As You Are was probably the most famous Nirvana song on the record, but the band follow it with a cover of Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam, a children's song from obscure Scottish indie band, The Vaselines, enhanced by the accordion playing of Krist Novoselic. One of the album's finest moments is the cover of Bowie song, The Man Who Sold The World, a heartfelt and straightforward rendition that became the album's major hit single. Pennyroyal Tea, Dumb and All Apologies are the three songs from In Utero, and all sound better and richer as acoustic songs, allowed room to breathe unhindered by muddy guitars. Pennyroyal Tea's line, "Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld / so I can sigh eternally", seems to be a reference to the tea & oranges mentioned in Suzanne but also the fact that Cohen's songs were a source of solace during Cobain's depression. Polly and Something In The Way are two of my favourite tracks on the record, with the latter especially given a whole new intensity as an acoustic song. Though I'm not particularly keen on the Meat Puppets' covers, I do like Lake of Fire, while All Apologies and Where Did You Sleep Last Night make for an emotional ending to the record. For many years now, this has been my favourite Nirvana record.
Artist: Nirvana
Born: Abeerdeen, Washington
Released: November 1994
Genre: Folk
Genre: Folk
Kurt Cobain's death in 1994 was tragic enough, but what's also sad is the way this posthumous release shows how Nirvana's development away from its grungy, noise rock beginnings into more nuanced, complex songwriting was cut short in its prime. The other outstanding feature of this record is that it essentially reinvented the MTV Unplugged tradition, thanks to Cobain's decision to avoid playing the band's hit singles, instead focusing on lesser-known album tracks and covers of songs by artists they loved. This raised eyebrows among the show producers at MTV, but Nirvana held firm to their principles and invited a few members of obscure indie rock band Meat Puppets (brothers Curt & Cris Kirkwood) and cellist Lori Goldston onto the stage with them. Part of the inspiration for this decision was listening to Mark Lanegan's 1990 solo album, The Winding Sheet, an acoustic album that also features an original cover of Where Did You Sleep Last Night, a Lead Belly song that appears here. The live performance of this album appeared on MTV in late 1993, but the CD version wasn't released until six months after Kurt Cobain's death. Many artists, from Bob Dylan to Page & Plant, would record their own Unplugged sets based on the success of this Nirvana performance.
Six of the record's 14 songs are cover versions, with four songs from Nevermind, three from recently released In Utero and just one from the band's first album, Bleach. About A Girl was the lone Bleach song and it opens the Unplugged performance, pointing to Cobain's love of REM and the fact that, though grunge was the scene where he made his name, his horizons were actually much wider. Come As You Are was probably the most famous Nirvana song on the record, but the band follow it with a cover of Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam, a children's song from obscure Scottish indie band, The Vaselines, enhanced by the accordion playing of Krist Novoselic. One of the album's finest moments is the cover of Bowie song, The Man Who Sold The World, a heartfelt and straightforward rendition that became the album's major hit single. Pennyroyal Tea, Dumb and All Apologies are the three songs from In Utero, and all sound better and richer as acoustic songs, allowed room to breathe unhindered by muddy guitars. Pennyroyal Tea's line, "Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld / so I can sigh eternally", seems to be a reference to the tea & oranges mentioned in Suzanne but also the fact that Cohen's songs were a source of solace during Cobain's depression. Polly and Something In The Way are two of my favourite tracks on the record, with the latter especially given a whole new intensity as an acoustic song. Though I'm not particularly keen on the Meat Puppets' covers, I do like Lake of Fire, while All Apologies and Where Did You Sleep Last Night make for an emotional ending to the record. For many years now, this has been my favourite Nirvana record.
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