CDs Revisited: Nirvana - 'Nirvana'

image via Amazon

As someone who doesn't listen to a whole lot of Nirvana, I would say that it's weird that I own this compilation, but at the same time it makes all the sense in the world that it made its way into my collection. Due to being born in 1988, I was only 3 when Nevermind came out as a circumstance of time, I kind of missed the boat on Nirvana when they were around. Flashforward to 2002 when I got my new discman and started forming my own tastes in music. I was obviously aware of Nirvana's legacy, but they were a band whose discography I didn't dive into much at the time (in my defense, I spent that summer listening to nothing but Green Day) (I had also only been listening to music on my own for two years). Then "You Know You're Right" was released and my interest was piqued.

Like I said, I was just beginning to develop my own musical tastes and unreleased recordings was a new concept to me. I didn't understand how a band as big as Nirvana could record a song and it go unreleased for so long even after Cobain's death, but I knew I wanted to hear more. I easily could have borrowed my dad's copies of Nevermind, In Utero, and MTV Unplugged, but that didn't seem very rock and roll to me and I wanted an album of my own (the irony of rebelling via a greatest hits compilation issued for the sole purpose of monetizing the biggest grunge band in the world whose messages were also used and sold as a trend was lost on me at the time). I was literally the target demographic for Nirvana and I unknowingly bought in. I was already familiar with their biggest hits, but Nirvana did introduce me to their pre-Nevermind works, as well as lesser known singles / non-singles "Pennyroyal Tea" and "Dumb" (the latter of which I still think is a great song). After a few months, I even decided I wanted to hear the rest of their songs... the real kicker being that I wound up borrowing my dad's CDs and burning my own copies.

I don't think that Nirvana changed my life in any profound way. I rarely ever listen to them and when I do it's usually because I'm at work and I don't have control of what's playing. But I totally get the appeal and the hype, and I wouldn't take that away from anyone who loves them.

Final verdict: it's not a bad collection of songs, per se, but anyone only just discovering Nirvana is better off listening to the band's proper studio albums and streaming "You Know You're Right".

This is normally where I would include a Spotify stream, but I can't seem to find the embed code using my Chromebook so here's a YouTube stream instead. (Also, the Spotify version is missing "Been a Son" so what's the point?)