Give your thouhts about this album after nearly 30 years : is it still relevant , was it more a hype and has it aged over the last decades?
First : I haven’t listen to it for years , but that happens with more ‘classic’ albums. I still find it an iconic album , but I guess I don’t enjoy it as more as in those grunge days. Maybe I overplayed it and didn’t stand the test of time. Actually , I listen to very little of that period , also Ten or any other early ninetirs grunge rock (even if it really fits in that category) . Well ....I’m gonna listen to Nevermind now and will come back and share my thoughts about this album later.
Good topic! You know... now that you mention it, I think I will go back and give it a listen. But, my impression right off, honestly, is that if I am gonna listen to Grunge, which I love (along with Goth, Industrial, Prog, Electronica, Psychedelic, etc., etc., of course ) as striking as the album / group was at the time, I've always MUCH more preferred Alice In Chains or in a more Psychedelic mood The Screaming Trees, or truthfully just about any other major Grunge band at the time. But, like you mention... for me too it has been a VERY long time since I've heard it, so I think it would be interesting to give it a listen and see how it comes across...
Solid record, but one where its influence is a bit overstated, for one, because most of the bands influenced by it weren't very good and were done before the turn of the century, and two, it could be argued that its influence was a negative on the rock genre since the collapse of the subgenre it inspired was basically the death knell of rock music as a mainstream force (on the level it was for decades prior to the collapse of grunge and alt rock as a mainstream force).
One band I never got into but I bought the album when it first came. I still have the cd with the hidden track. Sorry but Kurt‘s vocals made me run to the hills.
First : terrible mistake in the thread title ....it should be ‘matter’ off course. Now hearing :....On a Plain , which was and still is my favorite song now I listening to it ...great. I sill like this album ....energetic, catchy and good (not too long) rocksongs. Maybe I dit overplay it too much those days. The singing from Kurt I can’t always stand , but now when I’m listening to Something in the Way I think....yeah , this sounds ok , also due to the ballad like song.
Well, I guess it would be subjective. But, to me personally, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the label 'Grunge', there is a distinctive mood and sound, especially I think with the atonal singing many times in a minor key. It's kind of like GOTH. Now, you wanna talk about a HUGE, and I mean H-U-G-E variety within the Genre... I have a GOTH folder where my digital FLAC stuff is cataloged, the title of the folder being: GOTH - Melodic Death-Doom Metal - Gothic Black Metal ... which I'm SURE doesn't even come close to covering it. I mean you have stuff that is almost all Symphonic and Operatic like say Devil Doll (NOT the Psychobilly group) and you can have kind of New Wave mainstream stuff like Siouxsie and the Banshees, or strongly Metal influenced groups like Crematory, or Melodic Metal GOTH bands like Evanescence, or super mellow, moody groups like the Cranes or Amber Asylum, or much more Electro/Industrial influenced groups like Evil's Toy or Covenant. A truly HUGE disparity in sounds. But, to me anyway, overall with a general Dark mood or sound, especially in the voices/lyrics, which can vary between a soft, romantic sadness, to angry, Dark power. So, with Grunge I would think that the Genre would be even WAY more narrow by comparison. To me, it is sort of classified not just by where it comes from or the time period, but a rather distinctive, moody, truly 'Grungy' sound. I mean you gotta call/classify stuff by SOME name, right?
OH MY GOD!!! You pluralized the title of the thread!!! Heh, c'mon... Yeah, I am looking forward to what I think of the album now when I hear it.
The album is to me also long enough (relatively short and fast). I think that was a good choice too , but I no very little about the ideas /background of this album. To me I think ....it’s not an album which I should listen too often , but as a ‘rock’ fan , this is a special album.
I'm eternally surprised by the prevailing notion on this forum that Nevermind is better than In Utero, which is the angry, abrasive mess of a masterpiece that Nirvana was always meant to record. Steve Albini earned every last cent he was paid to engineer and produce that album, which sounds just incredible.
Well, Smells Like Teen Spirit has held up as their Stairway to Heaven or Free Bird, and it's from Nevermind, so that is probably the deciding vote as to why Nevermind is usually considered the better album.
Still a great album (and they were a great band with a gifted song writer). I like all Nirvana's material but this album Nevermind is special. In my view it is the last great rock album by a band that does matter.
Once in a while when I listen to the entire album I'm reminded all over again at what a masterpiece it is. I think it deserves all the praise it got and is still a tremendous listen. Put that Pallas LP on, crank it up and hold on tight!
Well, I guess like most more recent things that made an impact at a certain time it mostly matters to people who where there. Even though I guess it's an album that younger people might view as rather "cool". Is it "still relevant"? To whom? Probably to the record company because it's a healthy seller. Apart from that it is relevant for the period it helped shaping. And the people that were there back then. Was it "more a hype"? Yeah, but that's the nature of that beast and unfortunately Cobain paid the price. But: The songs were totally there so it wasn't unjustified. Has it "aged"? It's funny because I couldn't even say if it has. There was a time when I was so fed up with this because in 1991/2 it was virtually everywhere. And then came a time when I realised I could enjoy it again. But: Is this down to the fact that it has aged well or down to the fact that the overexposure has worn off and sweet nostalgia started to kick in? I have no idea....
well it may gain a little traction when "montage of heck" ever get's a release date. It's a documentary on Cobain headed up by his daughter in case anyone didn't know. Saw some kind of update on a random site the other day. Figured it was already out but guess not.
I still listen to it occasionally...but was never my favorite grunge group. I like Alice In Chains a lot more...and they have their sad story too.
If you were paying attention in 1991, there's no way it's influence can be overstated. I was always embarrassed by idiots with blonde permed hair and fake ripped jeans doing pop-rock with smutty childish titles, and this album, instantly, and within 40 minutes, made all of that look as juvenile and stupid as it undoubtedly was. That album killed an entire genre, and thousands of infantile careers, dead in one day.
Grunge may have killed hair metal but in hindsight hair metal is very enjoyable and not nearly as depressing as a portion of so-called Grunge music was
yeah this got played on my first LSD trip and "on a plane" took a whole nother meaning for me that night.
that was to our benifit. they were all on heroin as well so they were'nt really any better of example of way to live..
Still an amazing album. The melodies, particularly on the radio hits, were astonishing back then, and still sound fresh to me. Easily among the best, and most influential albums of all time. I realize that many on this Forum no longer listen to alternative rock, but if you did, you would never ask the question - the echoes of Nirvana resonate through so much of today's indie music.
