When: Released September 24, 1991
Why? Other than “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” I’ve never heard a Nirvana song. This album has sold over 30 million copies and is frequently ranked among the greatest albums of all time. Also, it seemed fitting to listen to this after “Never Mind the Bollocks,” as Kurt Cobain has said that this album was named after it.
What? 13 songs, 49 minutes. This is Nirvana’s second album and the first to feature drummer Dave Grohl.
First Impressions: Maybe I’m being overly influenced by having just listened to “Never Mind the Bollocks,” but in many songs this feels like a more polished, more mature, and more personal take on punk. Often the lyrics are baffling and obscure; without modern resources that explain their background and meaning I wouldn’t have a clue what they were about. But I think maybe that’s kind of the point: sometimes it’s more about the sounds of the words than their literal meaning (which is, I think, a Sex Pistols thing to do).
To some degree, I enjoyed every track on the album—except for track 13, “Endless, Nameless,” which should have been titled, “Endless, Pointless.” On the original LP, it appeared as a hidden track after 10 minutes of silence following track 12. It should have remained hidden.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” features a positively powerful musical chorus underscoring great phrases (“Here we are now, entertain us”) as well as words-as-sounds (“A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido”). Other highlights for me include: “In Bloom,” “Come As You Are,” “Lithium,” “Drain You,” and “On a Plain.” Learning the backstories of “Polly” and “Something in the Way” was helpful in appreciating those songs; although they weren’t among my favorite tracks on the album, I welcomed the change of pace they brought to the mix. (Although once you know the backstory for “Polly,” the song becomes a difficult listen.)
Instrumentally, I enjoyed the guitars and bass playing (and appreciated the addition of cello on one song!) but I especially was impressed by Dave Grohl’s powerful drumming.
I enjoyed Kurt Cobain’s singing but didn’t feel any immediate personal connection to his voice. That may come with repeated listens. The very few times harmonies were used, I liked them and wanted more…but maybe vocal harmonies aren’t very “punk” or “alternative.”
So? For some reason, I’ve had this bias against Nirvana and the whole grunge scene. The few songs I’ve sampled from Dave Grohl’s post-Nirvana Foo Fighters have sounded generic and bland to me, and nothing I’ve heard from them, Pearl Jam, and their ilk has made me want to hear more. So I was surprised to discover that I actually liked this. I will listen again.