Nirvana

Released in '96, this live collection captures the band in their element throughout the years between '89 and '94. It's a rough and ragged-sounding selection that runs from "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to "Negative Creep." Almost the complete opposite of the Unplugged album, this is an abrasive, frenzied record.

Kurt Cobain's guttural holler kicks off this live album named after a river that runs through
the late singer and guitarist's hometown of Aberdeen, Wash. Although these concert
recordings – taped at various Nirvana shows between December 1989 and January 1994,
just three months before Cobain's suicide – were captured far from Aberdeen's murky
waters and logging mills, the songs represent another chance for Nirvana to reso... More >

One new song and 15 old ones--intense renderings of familiar arrangements recycled for the buying season. Maybe it wouldn't carry the same weight if Kurt Cobain were alive. But it wouldn't carry the same weight if everybody had a good job or plague wiped out half the planet, either. Cobain is dead, alienated labor is everywhere, plague is something we worry about, and this is a great record for a world where those three truths are on the table. Less precise and contained than Nevermind or In Utero, it serves an unduplicated function for a band that changed the pop world with four dozen songs. I play Unplugged to refresh my memory of a sojourner's spirituality. I'll play this one when I want to remember a band's guts, fury, and rock and roll music. (Grade - A)