The Nirvana albums poll

You've just described my opinion of Nevermind.

Nevermind was the best of both worlds, man. strong poppy hooks which Bleach lacked (though wasn't striving for), but plenty of 'noisy' riffs to keep the purists at bay.

also don't really think there's a bad track on Nevermind whereas there's quite a few I skip past on In Utero ("Dumb" and "All Apologies" being two of them).

To my my ears the songs on it are a lot more samey and formulaic than on their other records, and the production isn't scuzzy or messy enough for a band like Nirvana.

xpost - love both those tracks!

I also skip Dumb and All Apologies, but the rest of the album is so great that In Utero is still easily their best album

I guess I'll have to agree to disagree there. I don't think I ever played it more than three times. granted I'm not a huge Nirvana listener anymore, but even when I was Bleach, Incesticide, and Nevermind always got more listens from me.

i mean, when i was 13, all i listened to was Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Talking Heads, Red Hot Chili Pepz, Ramones, Primus, Breeders, Ministry, etc—and Nevermind was pretty much the center of this universe for me.

Now that I'm 30 and are more into Husker Du, Wipers, Melvins, Jesus Lizard, Throbbing Gristle, Swans, etc—Bleach just sounds more like a part of my world. Revisiting it recently was like seeing an old girlfriend that got super pretty. Also, I remember hearing it in a bar once with a fellow musician, and he turns to me and asks "Who's this covering Nirvana?" and I was like, "It's Nirvana." Because neither of us ever really noticed that Chad and Dale play double kick pedal all over this thing, which was pretty fucking gauche in 90s alt-rock.

Ugh, correction, 31... u_u

San Te are you one of those guys that thinks that In Utero is 'too mellow'?

Not really, I mean, Nevermind had "Polly", "On a Plain", and "Something in the Way", which I loved. Maybe 'too restrained', but even then, I mean, there's not a 'template' that I need to follow to enjoy Nirvana either.

the songwriting just didn't grab me as much. I would say "Milk It" is my favorite from the album, except that live versions have always been way better than the studio version.

the songwriting, and the lyrics esp., is I think In Utero's biggest strong point...

"Lounge Act" and "On a Plain" are the two Nevermind tracks I still find myself humming at odd moments.

just realised that nirvana's albums are mostly quite similar in my mind, in that there are a load of tracks which i remember how they go from the beginning to the end, and a bunch that I can only remember the name of. So Nevermind has Lithium, On A Plain, Polly, Teen Spirit, In Bloom, Territorial, Come As You Are etc, but also has Lounge Act and Drain You which I'm pretty fuzzy on. Same with In Utero, but even more - lots of great memorable tracks but I couldn't tell you how Very Ape or Milk It go. Plus I never liked Rape Me or Heart Shaped Box or Pennyroyal Tea that much - they seemed too slow and/or angsty. Not much fun.

These days the Nirvana album I'd reach for out of choice is Incesticide. Lots of fun and manages to show many different sides of Nirvana, from the poppy (Sliver, Molly's Lips), to the rocky (Aneurysm, Dive) to the plain noisy and bizarre (Hairspray Queen).

I love Lounge Act

Lounge Act and On a Plain are both fantastic, yeah.

And the last four tracks on Incesticide are all awesome in totally different ways.

Actually, Lounge Act is the one that goes "Bum da-da Dum da-da Dum Duh-Dum Da-da-da" so yeah, I know it. And Drain You is about babies. So I lied about Nevermind, but then I have had it in my music collection since the dinosaurs died out so I should remember these songs by now.

Aneurysm is the best Nirvana song too.

Does anyone else share my love for Aero Zeppelin?

xp Can't really listen much to the back half of Incesticide (aside from Aneurysm and Downer)(& Downer wz on Bleach)...surprising to me that you would dismiss Heart Shaped Box and Pennyroyal Tea as "not much fun" but then fuck with the likes of Aero Zeppelin and Big Long Now...

(xp to dog latin, LOL chap, no I think Aero Zeppelin is one of their worst songs...)

Heart Shaped Box was one of my favorites on Utero, I'll say that much

Lounge Act, Drain You, Milk It, and Very Ape are all def. Nirvana POX for me

(well maybe not Milk It, though I love that song something fierce)

Incesticide does have at least one of my favorite Nirvana songs of all time--Been a Son

"Verse Chorus Verse" would make my POX.

Tell you what I've only played one and a half times:

That Nirvana box with the nice metal shiny front. Lovely package, nice DVD, but hey.

Although their version of "Seasons in the Sun" will stay with me forever.

(I got it cheap in the closedown of the MusicBox in Bracknell)

"Verse Chorus Verse" would make my POX.

yeah this too...I'm beginning to doubt my ability to come up with a Nirvana POX

question for geir, who wrote the following to explain the absence of unplugged and from the muddy banks... on the poll:

Albums consisting only of new versions of pre-existing material don't belong here.

geir: does the way a song is performed/recorded matter at all for you? is there any chance whatsoever that the unplugged versions of, say, "about a girl" or "pennyroyal tea" are better than the original studio versions, or do you consider that to be automatically impossible? is the beatles' "revolution 1" automatically better than "revolution" because it was recorded first? or is it possible that they improved it when they re-recorded it? do you allow at all for that possibility? and if you do, do you also allow for that possibility with a live version? i'm genuinely curious as to your reasoning behind this.

LOCK THREAD!! QUICKLY!!!

but i really want to know!!! i'm having a curiosity morning!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_8cARQTlQn-M/TF-_iovF19I/AAAAAAAAAFw/pTbEw56bLrc/s1600/sinking_ship.jpg

sigh.

plz keep Geir-trolling confined to the Mozart thread plz

I think it's a valid and interesting question.

should I fly to Los Angeles

Tell you what I've only played one and a half times:

That Nirvana box with the nice metal shiny front. Lovely package, nice DVD, but hey.

Btw, I find that box sets like this one, that I'd otherwise never listen to completely start-to-finish more than once every 10 years, are tailor-made for "shuffle" mode -- I quite enjoy the occasional track!

the box set has some good stuff--my favourite is the cover of "Here She Comes Now"...

Geir has made it pretty clear in the past that live music doesn't matter to him at all, only perfected studio recordings.

"Verse Chorus Verse" would make my POX.

― raging hetero lifechill (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:26 (40 minutes ago) Bookmark

One of their best. I really like "Marigold", the Dave Grohl song too.

his criticism doesn't even make sense about Unplugged in that while they were oft re-recorded old Nirvana tunes there was a GAZILLION covers of material that they hadn't covered on wax prior to that night. I mean ffs!

also Unplugged was awesome

who gives a shit? Geir excluded Incesticide and the two live albums and included the two 60s Nirvana albums: he has a bit of the idiot in him.

i'm aware of geir's general feelings about live recordings. i asked the question because he broadens the exclusion here (and elsewhere) to "new versions of pre-existing material." which raises the question: does performance matter at all? does a great vocal performance matter? does great playing matter? or is the first recording, preferably by the composer, automatically better than all other recordings. period? i'm not looking for a titanic-channeling, ilx-sinking, world-ending thread. just a simple answer. really!

i am i, don quixote

does performance matter at all? does a great vocal performance matter? does great playing matter?

I think he just reads the sheet music.

the box set has some good stuff--my favourite is the cover of "Here She Comes Now"...

― scaruffi kaleidoscope (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 12 October 2010 15:06 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I had the 7" version, back in the day. A very silly Melvins' cover of "Venus in Furs" on the other side.

I had a chance to buy some sort of weird Nirvana vinyl (7 or 10" ???) once, with the VU cover and the song Opinion and some other song on it, I can't remember which. Didn't have quite enough to do it, and am now haunted by it.

Never found it in any Nirvana discography; does anybody have any idea what the other song was? Was it super-rare or anything? Wd appreciate the feedback!!!1!!

http://www.discogs.com/Nirvana-Your-Opinion/release/641788

It's a bootleg, around $30 on popsike (record of recent ebay sales)