Chapter 1
Not much actually. Your official statement on the band is "Every single second of the whole discography is perfect, exactly what it should be, and it's glorious." You compared it to the Ramones with a budget, and marked it down as right place, right time, right message: i cannot possibly care about anything anymore.
Yeah, that sound like me. I have a copy of it on vinyl now. Should i just put it on the shelf and wait 40 years to see if it regains value as a pristine, never played, Target special limited edition reissue pressed on silver polyvinyl chloride? Show of hands. No? No one?
You know, Bottle, it might be interesting to approach it like new. Analyze is as an actual experience from beginning to end, really go in depth.
Interesting idea, Skip. Why?
Well, most of your reviews are critical readings. You've already listened to it a few times, you pick out lyrics that connect with real experience, in short you tell people what it means to you at the moment you're reviewing it. Why not give it an outsider analysis?
The art experience treatment? Ok, that could be fun. What if it takes more than one essay?
Then i won't be bored next week, and you won't blow through albums so fast.
Ok. Any objections from the rest of you? Nevermind for as long as it takes, and you'll all pitch in? Sandra?
Yes.
Compy?
Righto.
GREGORY?
DELIGHTFUL.
Gladys!? Do you mind hearing Nevermind 27 times through the floorboards over the next week!?
Not at all, Deary. That one never gets old.
Oh boy, oh boy, here we go.
Let's say i just wandered into a store and saw a photo of a naked baby in a swimming pool. Sandra, verdict?
Ok, i'll play along. Without any context, that's definitely obscene, but the fact that it's the cover for some recorded music on the shelf at a major corporate retailer at a time when the mainstream music industry is at the lowest point it has ever been since ever does hint at some level of cultural significance. Its apparent cultural value transcends any surface level outrage regarding its imagery. Plus there's no "you won't believe what the Nevermind Baby looks like now" articles flooding anyone's news feed. Spencer Eldon has talked about how weird it is, but he's not gonna stake his life on exploiting his own coincidental involvement. Gray area.
You said it. Naked baby chasing dollar bill on fish hook means something. Irony check, Skiperdoodle?
No, i'd say that is pretty direct, coherent, and intentional social critique. Probably not songs about sunshine, lollipops, or anthropomorphically helpful forest creatures. I don't know where we're headed, but this is kinda fun.
Me neither, Skip-rope. GREGORY, dead or alive?
IN WHAT WAY?
Don't spin me right 'round you bag of bones, old band or now band.
I FIND IT QUITE DIFFICULT TO BELIEVE THAT ANYONE NOT CURRENTLY UNDER A BOULDER WOULD BE UNAWARE OF THE PAST TENSE OF THE BAND NIRVANA.
Couln't have said it better myself. Look at all the pretty luggage we brought along with us, and we haven't even flipped it over to gaze at the worst photograph ever intentionally taken (no monkey with creepy electronics strapped to its back on this one).
Stickers on cellophane, what do they tell us? Sorry guys, rhetorical question, i'll take it from here, but feel free to chime in if something strikes your fancy.
Limited edition? Target exclusive? Silver? All marketing crap. You can dye anything any color you want. What you can't do is manufacture a bunch of crap no one will buy, at least not repeatedly. Target paid for this run of obsolete non-recyclable plastic, but only this one time to try to make some money. I bought it with money someone else already gave Target. We're ignoring the fact that i had it on cassette before i was a teenager, at least three copies on CD, my wife had a copy, etc. We're pretending it's a new experience. I vaguely know they were famous, this album was a big deal, it's Rock in the broadest sense. Not happy or party rock (from the imagery), but guitars and stuff. Maybe a friend said "you have to, have to, have to hear this album," and i said "ok, i'll bite, what's this thingamajigger all about?"
So, we open it. There's an insert with pictures and lyric fragments and credits.
Yep, that's silver, and a poly-lined inner sleeve, fancy. Doesn't smell like deoderant. Take it away, play button and ellipsis...
... no, shut up, play the whole thing again...
... holy shit. You're serious? Just some random guys from Seattle making their second album? It's incredible. For one thing, it's a proper album for vinyl: big obnoxious songs first, end with the softest tracks with barely drums. You got 2 choices, move toward soft and sweet or move toward soft and sorrow. That's the thing about vinyl, the structure is determined by the medium itself 'cause the center gets too squished up for a wide signal. Polly and Something In The Way ain't sappy love ballads.
I have to break character a little and say this mix/master is phenomenal. I've listened to it at least 40 times in every format imaginable, but i've never heard the vocal overdubs sound so nice and clear before. It's fantastic. Who knows how it will hold up with age, but it's certainly not a garbage pressing out of the box (except for the tiniest bit of crackle from factory dust).
Now, this is a phenomenological analysis. That means it's mine, in the first person. I don't know what you hear, what it means for you. I hear a pieced together studio album, various takes sewn together, some weird and questionable overdubs, some of the stitching is clearly visible like a mended old teddy bear, there are tracks that "didn't make the album" due to redundancy or lack of interest or because they didn't quite fit the mindset of the people in the room. I hear that in spite of all the layering and tone sculpting it's blatantly a power trio. 1 guitar part, 1 bass part, 1 octopus of a drummer named Dave Grohl, and some of the i don't care-iest vocal chord destruction imaginable. That's not cultured screaming, it's just pure abandon with no hope of sounding un-raspy tomorrow. It sounds like it hurts.
Skip will back me up on this one, Nevermind means "nevermind, either you get it or you don't, and i can't give you any better explanation. I'm just a person who clearly wants to be left alone."
So, we'll take a coffee break, maybe take a nap on the couch, and come back ready to dig a little deeper, figure out what the hell he's trying to say....
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