The following review was written when the album completed its 15th anniversary. It was published in Portuguese in the Elegy Iberica magazine with a series of other reviews. This is a free translation of the original article of 2006.
15 Years Over Nirvana’s Nevermind
Nevermind is probably the most well-known Nirvana’s album; not only because his cover caused a controversy at the time – I remember being a little girl and wondering why a baby was swimming after a dollar bill – but also because it contains some of the most radio-friendly singles of the band. Actually, also the ones that Cobain liked the least. But anyway.
Recorded back in 1991, it’s a strange stop between Bleach and Incesticide – the latter being a collection of outtakes and B-sides more than a ‘studio album’; Nevermind was the album that threw Nirvana to the front page, to the edge of fame, but also the one that broke through a whole aesthetic of the Grunge movement. The A-side opens with Smells Like Teen Spirit, that became a hymn to a whole generation (Cobain would later confess to be fed up with playing that song), flowing to an In Bloom that sounds like a pre-In Utero - kudos for the videoclip, amazingly directed by Kevin Kerslake. Come As You Are completes this trilogy of fabulous musicvideos, while Breed calls us back to Bleach. Lithium brings the pressure to the Grunge spirit before Polly closes the A-side with a splendid break – maybe a pre-determined point of reflexion?
Territorial Pissings opens the B-side with an excerpt on The Youngbloods’ Get Together, almost as an announcement that the Peace and Love Generation was long lost and forgotten. Drain You continues the headbanging, followed by one of the most beautiful tracks of the album: Lounge Act couldn’t be included in any other Nirvana’s album, and still it seems to escape to the alignment of Nevermind; Novoselic’s bass riffs goes slightly Love Buzz, but the schizophrenic vocals provided by Cobain announce an Unplugged – in which this track was oddly left out, although perfectly able to be included, given its metamorphosical nature. Stay Away is typically Nervermind, and On A Plain has the important role of preparing the listener for the catharsis of Something In The Way. This track passed by a troubled recording period: Cobain and the other musicians couldn’t agree on a precise beat, and Butch Vig asked everybody to leave the studio, leaving Cobain alone to play the song from the top with a guitar only. The silence was deadly, everyone was holding their breath – Butch Vig even unplugged the fan to provide total concentration. Everything else was ‘built from that skeleton’ (Butch Vig).
Nevermind isn’t my favourite Nirvana’s album; however, it was a great influence in my work as a musician, a work of art you can’t allow not to have on your shelf – and like a good book, it requires a careful listening. And like every masterpiece, it deserves to be bought as an original. And in vinyl, of course.
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