In 1993, the grunge band responsible for Smells Like Teen Spirit cast aside their deafening amplified guitars and thrashing anger, to produce this gentle acoustic album
Who would have guessed that stripping the distortion and violence from a band fuelled by anger would reveal songs which work so well in this naked form? Think of it as a great folk album. Cobain's vocals aren't the most versatile (neither are Bob Dylan's for what it's worth...), but the compositions are excellent.
While some people might find the often sorrowful lyrics to become draining, the varied instrumentals means this is an excellent album to have on in the background. Nirvana elevator muzak perhaps?! After the halfway point, I found the album can start to drag out a bit, but then the more upbeat All Apologies enters to re-inject some energy. And the banter between songs gives a great casual and intimate atmosphere. It makes the CD an occasion, rather than something manufactured on a producer's computer.
Well Simon, I found myself drawn to this particular one because Nirvana are of course, one of my favourite bands.
ReplyDeleteI think it might be worth mentioning that this 'album' stemmed from the highly successful 'MTV Unplugged' series that has seen many a band cut their ties with electric guitars and stick to the basics of acoustics.
Calling Nirvana a thrash band (cite second paragraph)... sacrilegious! >:-( Simon, you should know better as a self-confessed muso. But I'll forgive you, just this once tho! *raises fist in mock anger*
Getting to the subject closer at hand though, this album worked well because it wasn't supposed to be a success. Grunge music is slow in itself, being a slowed down version of punk and hardcore really. Trust me, I didn't think I'd hear the punk influence in grunge except when listening to Incesticide one day and found it wasn't at all like the rest of Nirvana's albums. Much, much quicker and much more like the old school punk that they were influenced by.
ANYWAY! Nirvana was quoted as saying that to do a Smells Like Teen Spirit acoustic version would not work. They grabbed their more mellow songs and were able to strip them back. Dave Grohl once said that a lot of Foo Fighters songs start off as acoustic and build from there. Well, it was probably something similar but working in opposite here. The rehearsal version (look it up on YouTube) actually shows Pennyroyal Tea being performed with the rest of the band, which is why Kurt asked just before he starts in the actual concert, "Am I gonna do this by myself?"
I agree that it is background music. Most of the stuff I've been doing at work has either been to this or another famous grunge band's MTV Unplugged session - Alice In Chains (I could go on about them for similar reasons). It's really quite haunting watching the session today and knowing that I am now older than Kurt when he passed away yet I still think of him as older than me, if that makes sense. But I'm two years past.
Anyway, thought I'd share my opinion with you. I'm sure it's been an interesting exercise for you.
Woops! I meant "thrash" as a description of the raucus energy they created, not the genre. So the 2nd paragraph has been ninja-edited to fix this.
DeleteIt's interesting to think that "luckily" the mellow Nirvana stuff works stripped back, as opposed to the Foo Fighter's technique of starting small then adding the thousand raging guitar tracks!