Nirvana
Nevermind

Even though I haven't listened to it for a long time, I also want to share my thoughts on Nevermind, Nirvana's second work. In fact, now I can do it better since I've detoxed from it. I discovered grunge in 1999, but I listened to the album in its entirety in 2001, exactly 10 years after its release. It was a time when there was renewed interest in Nirvana, and people were still looking for someone in music who could bring the rock genre, considered dead, back into the spotlight.

Nevermind appears out of nowhere, a record case where, however, nothing is left to chance: from the choice of the cover image (truly memorable here for its subject and meaning) to the production. And all this thanks to the change of record label, Geffen, much larger than SubPop, which had made Bleach possible. The world then notices the album and decrees its success, thus sparking Nirvana Mania, with deleterious consequences for its troubled author, who sees all his nihilism misunderstood, certainly not aiming to please everyone. The young people who listened to it did so instinctively because they were angry and were drawn to the power of the music as a release valve. But they also appreciated it for the lyrics with strong content. Nirvana, in fact, stood out for Kurt Cobain's writing, so fantastic that, along with other peculiarities, made other Seattle and surrounding bands seem more ordinary but more mature.

Nevermind opens in what I consider a perfect way. Not so much because Smells Like Teen Spirit is the anthem of the genre, making them immortal and famous, but because those initial chords, which one could listen to endlessly, fit perfectly there, at the beginning of the album. Teen Spirit, however, is an anomaly when compared to everything else. It's also odd to perform live, perhaps a bit boring despite the power of the chorus (A mulatto / An albino / A mosquito / My libido / Yeah). The title is borrowed from a deodorant, while the mostly incomprehensible lyrics talk about its author's contradictions.

In Bloom, the second track, is the quintessential Nevermind song, although it's not indispensable. The guitar arpeggio between the lines "spring is here again" and "reproductive glands" in the first verse, and between "bruises on the fruits" and "tender age in bloom" in the second, constitutes the sound of the album. It's certainly one of the catchiest, with a chorus that repeats twice, extending the length a bit too much, and an acidic bridge. In Bloom speaks of a stepmother nature, what happens to us in adolescence, and the changes never accepted by those living that period of life. The refrain is more cryptic: for the second time, after Teen Spirit, there's a reference to guns. Here it might be understood as the male sexual organ: one masturbates but doesn't know why they do it.

The third track, Come As You Are, is instead a jewel without ifs or buts, an electric and liquid ballad with calm tones and philanthropic intentions, despite the word gun appearing for the third time in the lyrics. If the song's text is quite clear, it's in the video where art finds its total fulfillment. A masterpiece of the masterpiece, it references the album cover (the water, the naked child chasing the dollar on a hook) but it's the presence of a (real) gun that makes the movie unsettling.

Breed is an abrasive track (seismic bass and tight guitar) but with a nice melody, and was already part of the setlists of the first album, though back then it was called Imodium. Over time, however, Breed also gains literary depth making it worthy of the new big project. It's very beautiful, although contrary to life, the refrain that states: "whether we have something or not, whether we plant a house or build a tree, we must not procreate." What doesn't convince me about this piece is the way it's recorded: the initial effect, which precedes the drum solo, is fake. If you listen to it with headphones, you can hear the overdub of two guitars in the bridge, creating voids, lacks of sound. These are obviously details that, however, make the whole thing evidently contrived.

Lithium is the track that lends itself best to the live dimension, managing to equal if not almost always surpass the studio version. It gives many satisfactions because it has a catchy refrain, not made of words, but rather a vocalization. To perform it, then, there's no need to be angry. The lyrics talk about friendship, madness, religion, understood more as hope or as a solution to alleviate pain. Something lithium can do in the pharmaceutical field.

For the sixth track, Kurt Cobain decides to use a ramshackle acoustic guitar to give a decadent effect to the narration. Polly is indeed the most bare song on the album yet even so, it keeps the attention alive. Here it tells of a rape case from the point of view of the rapist, justifying it.

Faster than Breed, more furious than Teen Spirit. Punk? Garage? Territorial Pissings is undoubtedly the most brutal piece, with a peculiar sound, deliberately lo-fi. The title may not be appealing, but the lyrics, made of two lines per verse and a shouted chorus at the point of hoarseness, are not at all trivial. After listening to it, can you still "smile at your brother," as the provocative words, spoken by the bassist before the track explodes, invite you to do?

Territorial Pissings, however, shouldn't have divided the next track from Polly and Lithium, which have common characteristics. Drain You confirms Kurt Cobain's narrative skills. The best lyrics are found in this track. It's a conversation between two children who care for each other so much it borders on morbidity. Among the lines, standouts include: "I don't care what you think unless it is about me"; "you taught me everything without a poisoned apple"; "the water is so yellow, I'm a healthy student"; "I'll chew your meat for you, pass it back through a passionate kiss because I love you." Truly curious, bittersweet, and poetic. The peculiarity of Drain You on a musical level is that it has no intro: the singing starts immediately even though the arpeggios (a mix of Teen Spirit and Polly) are bare. Its flaw, however, could be the long bridge made of noises and sampled sounds.

The tonal drops can be traced to tracks IX and X. Lounge Act, whose title has no relation to the content and whose verses, full of anger and good intentions, give up on the conciseness of poetry; and Stay Away (the worst overall), full of reverberations and with the guitar mimicking the voice. Effective is the finale, reminiscent of a sky rumbling thunder in the distance.

On A Plain, the eleventh song, brings the album back to previous levels. Here Kurt uses his proverbial honesty especially in the chorus "I love myself better than you love me", repeated every two lines. The drummer's chorus at the end is in bad taste.

The last title to appear in Nevermind's credits is Something in the Way, a subdued and mournful track that, in a few lines, recalls the period spent living under a bridge. And for the first time in a Nirvana album, a classical instrument, the viola, appears.

The definitive closure comes with a hidden track titled Endless Nameless. Very drawn out, distorted but true to moments of apparent calm, which in this case coincide with the atmospheric chorus, made of just two words (No Muss). And although it might be the result of improvisation, it's also a track with a real formal structure.

Conclusions: it took me more than a month to write this review and I must say it turned out well. As for the reviewed album, I'd like to hear it in a less artificial version, reduced by two tracks and with a bass that's not melodic. The drum element, on the other hand, is what convinces me the most.