Album Review: Nirvana “Nevermind” Final Review

Kurt Cobain’s suicide, which occurred 3 years after the release of Nevermind, was the cause of my search for characteristics within Nevermind that would help me further understand and characterize Kurt Cobain.  First and foremost, I’d like to contest that based off my extended listening to what is said to be Nirvana’s best album, Rolling Stone’s ranking of Kurt Cobain at number 73 on a list of the greatest guitarists of all time, I have found to be unwarranted. There are almost no standout solos on the album, and aside from the creative melodies displayed on songs like “Polly” and “Lithium”, there is almost nothing that makes me attribute any amazing guitar talent to the front man.

 

Upon my viewing of “About A Son”, the documentary about Kurt Cobain, I was able to develop an idea about his characteristics and persona. His main struggle seemed to be finding a stable identity, as he was a loner and very isolated; he was an outcast in school, liked to imagine he was from another planet, and confessed to having hated so many people, that he even had to formulate justifications for why he felt he hated them. Cobain explained that all of his songs were a mixture of his sincere side, and his “sarcastic, asshole” side, going on to say the theme of all of his songs is his battle with things that piss him off. This is easy to see in Nevermind: on “In Bloom” he explains that he hates the fans that don’t get his message, while on “Polly” he focuses on rape because its one of the things that “piss him off,” as he explained in the interview. On “StayAway” he shows his hatred for society’s tendency to conform as he yells “Monkey see, monkey do.

The cover of Nevermind is very clever as a construction of a social commentary; the cover features a baby swimming towards a dollar on a fishhook, which symbolizes the importance society places on monetary items and materialistic culture. However, even before music, he never strived to be successful or obtain fame, “Success is subjective” he told one journalist. He demonstrated his carelessness for monetary success as he was homeless most of his life between high school and creating music. This idea of living by dire necessities is expressed on “Something in The Way”. His rebellious, anti-establishment animosity is very apparentin most of the documentary, he told one interviewer he hated dogs because they “were too willing to please”. Upon becoming successful, Cobain began to resent his position in the limelight and claimed that it was a lot more fun when he had been envisioning and imagining being successful, and being played on the radio.

 

Through my listening to Nevermind, I was able to feel how Cobain felt on most of the songs. This is because Cobain, like myself, seems like a person who just wishes the world/civilization/society wasn’t so ill-natured, and complicated. His disassociation and isolation from society appears to me as a way to cope with his realization of society’s ills and the fact that he cannot change them. The internal tension he experiences seems to be a result of his disagreement with his environment, and his resentment towards those who either: conform, can’t see the evil nature of society, or don’t care enough to exclude themselves from partaking.

 

The Result Of Cobain's Struggle

The documentary and Nevermind were particularly difficult for me, in that I too experience the same tension as Kurt Cobain. It was discouraging because Cobain was an advocate for a good-natured society and held a good standard of morals, and the society we exist in just did not make sense to him, and he could never feel a sense of belonging. In the end, society won, and Cobain had given up when he committed suicide. The ills that he was witnessing, as he demonstrated on the cover of Nevermind, he could not defeat, nor run away from.

 

“No matter how clean we live our lives, we’re never going to survive this. Too many fucking enemies, we threaten too many people…. Everyone wants to see us die” -Kurt Cobain

 

Kurt Cobain was the ultimate social critic, whose passionate confliction of good vs. evil drove Nirvana’s music, and eventually drove him to his demise. Nevermind, in my final opinion, is the perfect social commentary of America’s flawed society from the point of view of a person who experienced obsessive emotions because of the inner-conflict that his environment caused. Nevermind is a catharsis of these obsessive emotions in the spirit of rebellion. Nevermind is both sarcastic and serious, both advocating and observatory, and both good-natured and ill-willed. Hate and loneliness are expressed on almost every song, as the product of a system that rewards for treating each other badly, and the product of a people with weak virtues who conform to it.

 

Nevermind is a must listen. The album, however, would have been just as good, if not better, with the exclusion of “Breed” “Endless, Nameless” “Drain You” and “StayAway”. The rest of the songs are memorable, if not classics. Nirvana is versatile, and Cobain’s voice is the epitome of that. Nevermind is full of emotion and feelings as diverse as the songs. Songs, which are full of interesting melodies, and are driven by a combination loud-soft volume alternation between chorus and verse, and the alternation of emotion and mood. Innovative use of vocals, bass, and the guitar hold true to the reputation of their influence today; Nevermind has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, and for good reason.

 

Nevermind Rating: 5/5