Nirvana
Local Anaesthetic

LA RECENSIONE

Oh, yes! Back in the day, the managers of the beloved Seattle grunge trio had to pay a hefty sum to these (rightly) obscure Brits, quite musically inept but very attentive to their legal rights and therefore ready to file a proper lawsuit. Poor Cobain couldn't even come up with an original name for his band!

What a pity, a disaster that such a delightful and captivating cover is destined to envelop such bland and slapdash music. Two "suites," one per side on the old vinyl from more than fifty years ago, which are nothing more than a mishmash of rhythm&blues, folk, rock, pop with no continuity, interludes, or connections. A progressive of this kind, given that the only progressive thing is the patchy mix of the various "grooves," none of which are decent. It's all poorly played, even worse recorded, mixed haphazardly, in total discord with the progressive and surreal class of the photo and the cover set, best enjoyed by opening it and adding the back portion.

And let's talk a bit more about this cover, because it's better: it’s one of many created in the early seventies by the multi-talented artist (dancer, painter, photographer) Keith McMillian, alias (Marcus) Keef, his pseudonym when making album covers. This fellow created a good number of covers, all photographs of special and often extravagant sets, each more iconic than the last.

If I concentrate a little, the following come to mind:

_COLOSSEUM: Valentyne Suite

_BLACK SABBATH: Black Sabbath and Paranoid

_BEGGARS’ OPERA: Act One

_AFFINITY: self-titled

_ Rod STEWART: An Old Raincoat bla bla and Gasoline Alley

_MANFRED MANN CHAPTER 3: Volume Two

_WARHORSE: self-titled

_CRESSIDA: Asylum

_David BOWIE: The Man Who Sold the World

_INDIAN SUMMER: self-titled, my favorite cover

_SPRING: self-titled

These European Nirvana still exist! Since 1967 (this is their fourth album, 1971). They must have released at least a dozen works, which I consider certainly all worth skipping. In fact, I know, and own, only this album, the only one with a cover by Keef. Every couple of years I listen to it again... and get the urge to get rid of it! But then I look at the photo, and put it back on the shelf.