Album Review: “Nevermind” 1 Week Later

After a week of listening to Nevermind while driving to and from school (an hour each way), my impression has greatened heavily and rapidly. The main problem I had in my initial listen was grasping and deciphering the lyrics, because of Cobain’s unique way of singing. Listening more and more has helped me to easily recognize his words; along with a little help of internet lyric searches, I was no longer constrained to just listening to the music, which was a huge relief on songs like “Territorial Pissings” and “Breed”, in which the instrumentation left me less than thrilled and very impatient.

The music itself has grown on me, the more punk-rock songs such as “StayAway” and “Lounge Act” is still not preferable, but is definitely more tolerable. I have noticed that there is a general lack of demonstration for talent on both the drums and bass (Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, respectively), and that their role seems to take more of a backseat to front-man Kurt Cobain, providing more background than solos, flares, etc.  The melodies, and guitar riffs used in the songs have grown on me as well, I think that just because of Nevermind’s 1991 origins, I have likely listened to enough music that was influenced by Nirvana, and therefore have heard too much of the product of the influence, and not the influences themselves, therefore rendering them upon first listen- typical and outdated. The huge shift in moods and emotions between songs still stands out to me above all, in the documentary “About A Son”, Cobain explains in an interview with regard to his catharsis on tracks “every song feels different,” and that they all contained a “combination of every emotion”. I could definitely hear this on Nevermind: an almost confused catharsis, where each song contains a variety of feelings and expressed emotions.

Watching the documentary about Kurt Cobain, entitled “About A Son” (2006) helped me develop an identity for Cobain, and begin to

About A Son (2006)

characterize his values and persona. This in turn led to my construction of interpreted meaning as I listened to Nevermind. I found a few main themes within the album that seem to characterize Cobain; death, carelessness, rebellion and guns were all very prominent in Nevermind. I found the chorus to “Come As You Are” to be most intriguing and unfortunately ironic, as Cobain screams “And I swear that I don’t have a gun” three short years before he committed suicide with a gun of his own. One issue that Cobain was adamant about was journalist’s practice of criticizing and trying to publicize his drug use. I can see where he is coming from, because I hadn’t noticed him mention drug use on the album, and I believe personal life should remain personal.

Another common theme exhibited by Cobain in both “About A Son” and Nevermind was an extreme feeling of alienation and isolation. Cobain admitted in an interview featured in the documentary that he felt a sense of comfort when he would try and convince himself that he was truly an alien, dropped off on Earth (like many others), and adopted by his human parents. He expressed that he had a feeling of homesickness on Earth, and genuinely didn’t belong. This same sense of alienation (no pun intended) can be heard on “Something In The Way” where Cobain speaks of living isolated under a bridge, and interacting with the animals.

Overall, Nevermind has and continues to grow on me. I will continue to dissect lyrics and attempt find meaning within the album and it’s content, because I feel that Cobain’s words were not just meaninglessly thrown together, as some have said, and that there is a deeper meaning to be found. Hopefully I am not setting myself up for disappointment.

So far, Nevermind Rating: 3.5/5