Nirvana 4th album

On a week-long binge and thinking about their trajectory. What does the ILM hive think they might have done next? More noise? Acoustic outsider tape experiments? Broken up, probably. I saw their last Seattle show and the openers of Chokebore and Butthole Surfers were great primers for what was to come. Saw Kurt and Courtney peek out from a side door in a Mercer Arena hallway. Everyone froze and they slinked back in.

Acoustic/chamber music

Dave would've been phased out, and we might've been spared the Foo Fighters.

REM duet

some combo of "Marigold"/"You Know You're Right"/"Do Re Mi," so probably a Bob Mould-ish version of In Utero

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuFf2Gp-lGk

Not a very interesting answer

I think the likeliest scenario is that Kurt would have killed himself, Dave would have continued with the Foo Fighters project and achieved a level of commercial success that nobody ever could have predicted, and Krist would have went into semi-retirement. The freaks in the Nirvana fanbase would then be free to cook up ridiculous conspiracy theories such as "Kurt was murdered" and "He wrote Hole's second album"

Nirvana - Don Killuminati, imo

good stuff here

https://nirvana-legacy.com/category/after-in-utero-the-final-year-1993-1994/

In terms of Cobain’s album-ready material, by his own admission the cupboard was threadbare. Most finished studio works had been released or long abandoned. That doesn’t mean there might not have been some revivals – half of In Utero was filled with songs from before Nevermind – but there’s no indication of him feeling much affection or use for songs like ‘Old Age’ (given away), ‘Sappy’ (already released in ’93), ‘Clean Up Before She Comes’ (abandoned in the late Eighties and never attempted in studio.) His new material in ’93-’94, true songs as opposed to jams like ‘The Other Improv’, consisted of two tracks; ‘Do Re Mi’ and ‘You Know You’re Right’. It doesn’t mean he was done, Cobain was fully capable of writing songs at speed – but he would have been starting almost from scratch. Attempts to fill imaginary tracklistings with old leftovers are fun but fly in the face of the care and attention Cobain paid to the music he put out – who knows?

As for direction; it’s a mystery. Acoustic? Vague statements and a home demo of ‘Do Re Mi’ provide little support for that idea. The opportunity to work with members of R.E.M. also doesn’t suggest an acoustic route given R.E.M. were busy working on ‘Monster’ – one of their most amped-up records (heck, it even had room for Thurston Moore to bust electric on it.) Electric? Well, ‘You Know You’re Right’ was Nirvana-by-numbers (though cool!), messing around with new effects boxes earlier in ’93, all the jams and noisy tracks created in late ’92/early ’93 – it could all suggest Cobain’s sound heading back toward the heavier sounds of pre-pop Nirvana…Or it could be nothing. Preparation for a new album was already well behind

There was the (overstated) story that Cobain was going to work with Michael Stipe for a project. So I like to imagine the album would have been pitched somewhere between Unplugged in New York/Automatic For The People with shades of Lanegan's Winding Sheet. Makes sense to push back against the noisy, pigeonholing album with something a bit more songwritery. I imagine it would have been truly great.

I would actually have quite liked to have heard a Nirvana album of epic jams

really hard to imagine what that would even sound like. concision was sorta their thing. can't imagine them pulling off like a Perfect From Now On or something

And what was the most concise music in the years after In Utero? Ska-punk!

Nirvana's transition into rap-rock would've been something to see.

chinese democracy

Given the success of Unplugged, maybe an album of covers as a holding pattern, followed by an album of more acoustic original material?

I'm vividly picturing a fat, dreadlocked Kurt, with Joey C. at his side, slurring his way through the video shoot for 'Still Smellz Like Teen Spirit (Y2K, Y'all)'.

Kurt had a song in demo form meant for Lanegan, IIRC; also had a song for Iggy Pop, again IIRC. Seemed to be writing stuff with Courtney, or at least performing stuff live with her.

(rap)

Still smells like teen spirit to me, you see
Fuck you if you disagree
Up in this bitch, just me and Joey C.
Fat stacks, fat blunts, cold brews
Nevermind wit yo jealousy

I assume Pat Smear would've joined them in the studio. Scott Litt was going to produce, no? He's credited on
Unplugged.

The Stipe/Cobain project was going to be a film score, and I've always wondered what the movie was.

October 31, 1994: The Atlanta Constitution reports that Cobain has begun work on Kurdt Kobain, a solo project written with (and produced by) R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe. There are conflicting reports on what the album will sound like. Cobain initially says the record will be entirely acoustic, but 20 minutes later in the same interview, he suggests that the songs will be similar to Chicago art-punk band Shellac’s recently released At Action Park.
http://www.spin.com/2009/04/what-if-kurt-cobain-didnt-die/

After the liquor sto
I'm gonna go
All up in yo utero
With the lights out, they say it's less dangerous
Girl, your heart-shaped box is contagious

stipe and cobain meshing well creatively has always seemed like a stretch to me, but who knows ...

Load up on drugs
Forget your friends
Unless those friends
Drive a Mercedes Benz
Roll up in the club
With the lithium
On a plain, can't explain
Til I make you cum

Boyyyyyyyy

Cobain said in his last major interview (with David Fricke in RS January 1994) that the next album, though as yet unwritten, would be quieter and more acoustic. It's not speculation that they were headed in that direction. He specifically cited R.E.M. and Automatic for the People, too.

Courtney had a good quote about this too a while ago, if he had lived: he probably would've given up music for a while and pursued painting and visual art. she said they'd probably be divorced, living on the Upper West Side, going to gallery openings, and he'd be dating a super model. bit of a stretch, but a sweet thought nonetheless.

Wiggy what's up y'all?
It's your homeboy Dead Kurdt
Rockin' the mic
With my main man Fred Durst

See U2 Pop.