Nevermind: An Album Review by a Random High Schooler
This article by Peter Easterwood reviews the 1991 album Nevermind.
Embedded Files
Nevermind: An Album Review by a Random High Schooler
Nevermind: An Album Review by a Random High Schooler
By Peter Easterwood
By Peter Easterwood
Nirvana, the three-man group that shot grunge into the stratosphere, made an impact in a short period of time. They gathered in 1987 and broke up in 1994 after the tragic passing of Kurt Cobain. The band consisted of Kurt Cobain, the vocalist and guitarist, Chris Novoselic, the bassist, and Dave Grohl, who played the drums on Nevermind and In Utero. Out of all three of those albums, I find Nevermind to be the most consistent and the most satisfying listen.
Before the release of Nevermind, their debut album Bleach was released on June 15, 1989. It brought on a much more raw experience, full of multiple hard-hitting, dark songs, which gave a preview of what Nirvana can do with a different drummer Chad Channing. Channing left the band less than a year after Bleach, not seeing eye to eye artistically. During an interview with KAOS TV in 2018, Chad said, “I have no regrets because I always thought that things just sort of fall in place for a reason.” After losing Channing, Cobain and Novoselic decided to go on a search for a new drummer to replace him; it did not take them long, funny enough. Cobain went to a Scream gig (Scream being the band Grohl was a part of) with the band Melvin’s frontman, Buzz Ozbourne. Seeing how Grohl played, Kurt was in awe and knew he had to get him in the band. Grohl only needed a single session to impress both Cobain and Novoselic. They added Grohl onto the band and got right into making their next album, which would be named Nevermind.
Photo by The New Statesmen
Building up to Nevermind, Nirvana released a couple of teaser singles, including “Sliver,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and “On a Plain,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit” being the single that hit the mainstream, exploding their recognition as a grunge band. The anticipation was eased on Sept 24, 1991 with the release of Nevermind. It was much cleaner than Bleach. Production gave the vocals a clearer sound, and the instruments did not sound meshed together. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is not the only well-known song on the album. A 12-song album has to have multiple notable songs if it is called one of the greatest albums of all time. With songs like “Come as You Are,” “Polly,” “Lithium,” and (the latest to gain acknowledgment from the movie The Batman) “Something in the Way.” Every single song on the album isn’t an outlier; all of them sound as good as the last, and can’t be boring for mostly anyone going into it.
The intro track, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” tells a collage of different stories, talking about Cobain’s drug abuse in the track, his girlfriend at the time, and how he does not deserve the fame he is receiving. The way it sounds pulls people in, the quietness transitioning into a loud drum line, back to the quietness again. This sound was ripped from the Pixies. Cobain told David Fricke of The Rolling Stones, “I was trying to rip off the Pixies. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.” While “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the most famous song off of the album, my personal favorite is “Territorial Pissings,” with its loud, banging drums, screaming vocals. The lyrics speak of himself and what he believes at the time, calling himself an alien, and speaking about men and women, saying, “Never met a wise man. If so, it's a woman.” There are zero, and I mean Zero with a capital Z, bad tracks on the album. The only meh song compared to the others would be “Endless, Nameless,” a hidden track showing the 10 minutes after a finished album. Many other review sites have given Nevermind a 9 or above.
Photo By Reddit
Pitchfork, an infamous rating site, basically known to give “controversial” ratings to some adored albums (example being Donda vs Peppa Pig), gave Nevermind a positive rating. Jess Harvell, a writer for Pitchfork, gave Nirvana’s Nevermind’s 20th Anniversary a 10. Though an anniversary album contains more with the originals involved, Pitchfork gives most of the props to the originals, calling the extras just an addition to the originals. Jess Harvell states, “The enduring brilliance of the original is at this point beyond dispute, but the value of the demos, alternate mixes, and live cuts included on two new sets is debatable.”
It has been 31 years since the release of Nevermind, and it still stands the test of time, considered in every list as one of the best albums of all time. The way it changed the landscape of music, the world, and the generation that grew up at that time is just astonishing. The sound has not aged at all, with how crisp the instruments sound, and the darkness Cobain continues to go into with his raw, touching vocals, and disturbing lyrics, gives this album a 10/10.
Page updated
Report abuse