Nirvana - Nevermind
Yesterday we looked at the first disc of the new reissue of Nirvana's legendary Nevermind album.
Today we're looking at the second and third discs in our final two parts celebrating the record.
Disc Two
'Drain You' and 'Something In The Way' show two different and exciting sides to Nirvana on these BBC Session recordings.
The former is, as you'd expect, grittier than the final studio version, and perfectly captures the bands energy.
'Something In The Way', meanwhile, shows a different side to the song, replacing acoustic for electric to give the track even more of an atmosphere.
By the time the whole band join Cobain, it gives the track a whole different feel.
The second disc also contains 7 songs from The Boombox Rehearsals, in a part only for the diehard fan.
Understandably, these recordings are very poor in quality, but do give slightly different versions (and includes some tracks not included in the final album).
Songs like 'Old Age' and 'Verse Chorus Verse' are nice inclusions as they didn't make it to the final cut of Nevermind.
That said, anyone except hardcore fans might find it hard to get past the recording quality to appreciate these gems.
In a contrast, the Smart Studio Sessions are cleaner without losing their edge.
A highlight from these is what starts as an acoustic-driven version of 'Lithium', adding an extra dynamic to the song.
Again, it's the unused songs from these sessions that prove exciting, 'Pay To Play' again showing the hardcore, Black Flag influence on Nirvana.
As it stands, the second disc does well to provide some brilliant archive recordings of songs from Nevermind whilst putting in enough material that didn't make the cut to provide something "new".
Plus, as bad as the quality is, hearing Nirvana in the context of their rehearsals is something we'd recommend.
Disc Three
The third disc is essentially another mix of the album, just without 'Polly'.
The Devonshire Mixes are another inclusion that will please a hardcore fan, but doesn't offer enough to justify a purchase just for this.
The tone and mixes largely differ only slightly, and this disc is clearly included to put it our there for those who desparately want it, but really doesn't add much to the overall collection.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge
Tagged in Kurt Cobain Nirvana