Nirvana
Bleach

In January 1988, a certain Kurt Cobain booked a recording studio at Reciprocal Studios in Seattle under his band's name, where producer Jack Endino worked. "This group called me out of nowhere." Endino recalls, "We want to come and record some songs, they said." No one could have imagined what that "group out of nowhere" would become in less than three years.

Composed of leader/singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Chris Novoselic, and drummer Dale Crover, the trio had not yet settled on a definitive name at that time. On the appointed day, they recorded about ten songs, thanked him, said goodbye, and were not heard from again for five months. In June, they returned to recording with some changes: the name had been chosen, Nirvana, and the drummer was now Chad Channing. They recorded only one song, which would be their first single, "Love Buzz," a cover of the Shocking Blue, released shortly after by the label Sub Pop. The legend of Nirvana had begun. Cobain, however, had enough material to create an album, and so Nirvana returned to the studio for six recording sessions between Christmas Eve of 1988 and January 24, 1989. It is mainly from these sessions (only three tracks were recovered from the previous ones) that "Bleach" was born, the group's first album, published in June 1989, also by Sub Pop. "Bleach" is an album with a raw, dirty, edgy, biting, hostile, tense, nervous sound. Nothing to do with later works. It is also a record that shows us a different Kurt Cobain, who is indeed frustrated and conditioned by the difficult relationship with his parents, but still just a 21-year-old far from the vortex of madness and drugs that would later engulf him and from which he would never escape. The songs highlight a composer's vein that is still a bit immature and not fully exploited, but not less effective and productive for that. Just think of brilliant episodes like "School" or "About A Girl". Part of this "immaturity" is also due in part to Cobain still greatly neglecting the lyrics: they are usually just a few verses repeated several times (as in "School", "About A Girl", "Scoff", or "Swap Meet"), mostly written the night before recording the songs. "Back then we only cared about the music," Cobain would later recall. And in this respect, "Bleach" does not disappoint at all. The heavy and obsessive guitar riffs of "Blew" and "Floyd The Barber," the frantic aggression of "Negative Creep," "School," and "Mr. Moustache," the stinging guitar of "Scoff," the semi-psychedelic riff of "Love Buzz," the pop rock of "About A Girl," the slow and slimy "Paper Cuts," the alternation of quiet verse/yelled chorus, and the schizophrenic rhythm of "Downer," and Cobain's screams are the features that make "Bleach" an atypical, unusual album, a little gem too often overlooked.

The only flaw of the record is that it is a bit too repetitive. It would have been better to reduce the number of songs by two or three units: towards the end of the album, the average listener might become a bit weary of the ponderous and anguished pace of the compositions that characterize "Bleach." However, this unique flaw does not significantly damage the value of an album that has much more to say than the little that has been said about it. Yet it is likely that the sound of "Bleach" was what Cobain had envisioned for Nirvana: however, for various reasons, this musical path was not pursued further down the line and was never revisited. In conclusion, "Bleach" can be a difficult work to assimilate, especially for those who prefer the "clean" sound and punk pop of "Nevermind"; yet it is an album full of ideas and interesting, conceived in a punk metal key, with a massive and viscous sound (grunge, in short!); an excellent prelude to the earthquake (musical and otherwise) that would erupt later.