SOUNDTRACK: NIRVANA-Bleach [Deluxe Edition Reissue] (2009).
I bought Bleach after I fell in love with Nevermind. I liked it, but I think at the time I felt it was too raw, or maybe just less poppy than Nevermind. But in listening to this remaster I’m inclined to say it’s better than Nevermind (although, granted I haven’t listened to Nevermind in a while now, either).
The disc is raw, and yet Cobain always had a knack for pop sensibilities (just disguised under noise and feedback). You can see his love of pop by the choice of covering The Vaseline’s “Molly Lips.” And in a song like “About a Girl” (which they played on their MTV Unplugged show).
What’s amazing to me about this disc is how full the band sounds with just the three of them. Even when Cobain is soloing, it never sounds like the guitars are gone and it’s just a solo over a bassline. Not bad for $600.
Of course, having said that about the poppiness of the band, there is still some pretty heavy, weird and ugly stuff on here. The heavy thudding intro of “Floyd the Barber,” the screaming cover of “Love Buzz,” the weird noises in “Big Cheese,” the wild bent notes in “Negative Creep” and the absolutely crazy feedback noise of “Paper Cuts.”
And the disc ends with the fantastic wordplay of “Downer.” It’s really a solid collection of sludgy grunge songs.
So, famously, this disc was originally recorded for like $600. I don’t know if the “remastering” has done anything. I didn’t compare it to the original, although it seems like the vocals are a little clearer. For $600, I’d think the original was all done in one take, and yet there must be overdubbed vocals (Cobain is the only one signing on “Big Cheese,” right?)
The real selling point here is what’s included in the second half of the disc: a concert from 1990 in which the band sounds tight, fast, and quite amazing. It’s most of the material from Bleach, with a few extra tracks thrown in and it sounds fantastic.
There’s also a 40-some-page booklet which is good for a read, but nothing all that special. Nirvana only put out 3 proper albums, so I’m not sure if you can say this was really overlooked, but it’s certainly worth looking into again.
[READ: March 3, 2010] “Aftertaste”
This was the second piece that I read in The Sun. This one was fiction. And it featured a recovering heroin addict as its protagonist.
Abby lives in Manhattan and goes, for the first time, to Gourmet Fair, the health food store around the corner from her house. As she’s walking out she runs in to Gideon. Gideon lives nearby and owns the cafe across from her apartment. They’ve never spoken before but she is aware of him from his cafe (and the elaborately hand drawn menus in the front window).
Oh yeah, and Abby is a former heroin addict. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 