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Nirvana - Bleach - Critical Reappraisal

Started by BoxMan, Mar 18, 2014, 03:03 PM

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BoxMan

Nirvana, there's no band quite like them. Age doesn't wear these guys' music thin. They still stack up against any rock band or underground band before or since. Maybe it was the sheer passion of Kurt Cobain conveyed in both his vocal delivery and to the bone direct song writing approach. Maybe it was also the directness of these songs, the power of simplicity with the bouncy bass and thunderous drums all serving the only frontman I can think of whose voice was primal scream therapy that could get on the radio. John Lennon could scream from the heart too, but he kept that to the outro of Mother and his avant garde Yoko collaborations. He didn't do that through the whole of all of his songs.

Nevermind, In Utero, Unplugged - next level rock music. But Bleach, a lot of people say Bleach was a band in development and it's even been undermined by Cobain himself, who claims he was merely trying to fit into the Seattle scene.

Well, let's see if it isn't something a little more.

01. Blew
There's a 70's feel on this track. This is a functional track 1, not my favourite on the LP but sets the tone.

02. Floyd The Barber
This is a prototype for some of the more messed up stuff on In Utero. The drum and guitar riff playing in unison reminds me of Scentless Apprentice. Tense music at it's best.

03. About a Girl
This shows the pop songwriting ability of Kurt Cobain. He himself said he held back this side of himself here to fit into the burgeoning Seattle scene. For all the talk of Cobain being 'pure' and 'all about the music, man' he played a calculated game to get to the top. He approached music with passion but also a concept of a new kind of music he wanted to make that wasn't available at that time.

more here:
http://boxmanchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/nirvana-bleach/

godin

I never much cared for bleach.


In Utero on the other hand...
Dingus.

XerxesTheBomb

In Utero is such a filthy record, Milk It and Scentless Apprentice are pretty hard to top imo.  I liked the songs on Bleach, but the recording makes it unlistenable to me.  However I'll jam School and Floyd The Barber from their live stuff as much as I can.

deftones47

Nirvana is great, but I don't really care too much about their pre-Dave Grohl material.