Summary Even before Kurt Cobain's controversial suicide propelled Nirvana into the fame stratosphere forever, this album was groundbreaking and infinitely powerful. It revolutionized a generation. Nevermind ushered in the mainstream era of grunge, characterized by discordant, dirty guitar, raw urgency to the vocals, and a relentless wall of sound. The teen angst anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit heads up this album, followed by such classics as In Bloom, Rape Me, and Come As You Are. Kurt Cobain's voice ranges from primal scream to soft, almost pleading, in tracks such as Something in the Way and Polly. Twenty years later, these songs are still regularly played on the radio, a testament to how lasting Nirvana's influence truly is.
Critical Analysis
This album hit my generation like a shockwave. We had never heard anything like it before. Kurt Cobain's lyrics were seemingly simple but galvanizing to the generation he was talking to. The urgency and pain and sheer power in his voice are still contagious. He poured his troubled childhood, his struggles in adulthood, and his general distaste and dissatisfaction with everything, including his own success, into his music. The origin of his emotion was very genuine and, as such, no one has sounded quite like him since. Dave Grohl, now front man of the highly successful band Foo Fighters, was a powerhouse drummer creating the backbone of these songs, and Krist Novoselic's work on the bass was strong and melodic. Though there have been thousand of imitators trying for the Nirvana aesthetic, there was some particular chemistry of these three musicians that comes through in the music and cannot be replicated. The magnetism of this group and this album is undeniable and, twenty years later, Nevermind is still arresting and completely relevant.
Why I Included This Album
This album is so classic and timeless, and such an anthem of adolescence, charged up with anger and rebellion as it is, there was no choice but to include it.
No comments:
Post a Comment