After listening to Foo Fighters, Spotify played me a sort of who’s who of artists related to the early Foo Fighters (Nirvana, Hole, Queens of the Stone Age, etc..) and I thought I’d write reviews for a few albums from those bands, starting with Nirvana.
Nevermind is Nirvana’s second album, and it’s the really famous one. It launched grunge into the mainstream, it was even parodied by Weird Al1. It’s also my favourite Nirvana album (there are only three).
Much like the punk rock of the 70s, grunge sought to sweep away the excesses of the 1980s. Nevermind is noisy and simple. Apart from a cello part on Something in the Way the album consists solely of vocals, electric guitar, bass and drums, played by the band’s three members: lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl.
Nevermind rocks. 4½ stars.
As an aside, I think Smells Like Nirvana is one of Weird Al’s best parodies. The song is about how hard it is to understand what Cobain is singing, unlike Weird Al’s up to then-usual fare based on food. It’s his best actual satire.