3 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

buy the box set and mix your own "best of"; this isn't it

There's always been a great CD buried in the somewhat bloated excess that is the "With the Lights Out" box set. And altho' this single disc offering doesn't quite nail it, for casual fans who don't want to shell out forty bucks for the box, "Sliver" distills about 60% of the best tracks. Ideally, however, anyone who wants an absolutely stellar disc will head to iTunes and cherry pick the best and rarest songs.

First of all, the "new" tracks. Most notable for hardcore fans will be "Spank Thru" from the legendary "Fecal Matter" demo. Fans have been clamoring for the release of this demo for more than a decade. Well, now you have it, and it's...just ok. It's a raw, full-throated version with Kurt and Dale Crover of the Melvins, and altho' the song appears fully formed, Kurt croaks the melody and staggers about rhythmically, and it's nowhere near the minor pop masterpiece it became when it was finally released on the SubPop 200 compilation a few years later. Casual fans will do well to seek out this version instead, especially if they're entirely unfamiliar with the song, as it's yet to appear on a major label release save a live cut on "Muddy Banks of the Wishkah."

You also get a sloppy demo of "Sappy", a "Nevermind" era B-side that eventually showed up fully formed on the "No Alternative" charity compilation. The "No Alternative" version is a bazillion times better, one of the best songs Nirvana ever recorded. You can find that version on the "With the Lights Out" box. Here, it's just sappy seconds.

And the last "new" track is a boombox demo of "Come As You Are." One syllable: meh.

But there are still enough rare gems here for fans who couldn't stomach the full-priced box. "Do Re Mi"--the last song Kurt ever recorded--remains a jangly, wistful, ornamental wonder, the sort of fragile pop melody that most bands couldn't write even with instructions, and here Kurt just tosses it off in his basement two weeks before his death. It honestly belongs in the same sainted pantheon as "About a Girl", "Sliver", "Lithium", or "All Apologies." It's sweet, maudlin alt-country, with an arpeggio of slackly tuned guitar strings that chime up and down the scale of church bells. The vocals are performed in a crooner's warble. Kurt's voice is on the verge of breaking, but it just manages to sustain this ethereal melody, as he keens "Do re mi..." over and over again in a bluegrass falsetto.

Other highlights are the Leadbelly novelty "Aint It a Shame" (sample lyric: "aint it a shame to beat your wife on Sunday") and the "Nevermind" demo "Old Age" which even with it's mumbled, incomplete lyrics hints at the greatness to come. "Blandest", "Oh the Guilt", and "Mrs. Butterworth" with its droll talking blues breakdown will also appeal to fans of "Bleach"-era Nirvana.

Ultimately, however, there are probably too many demos of already released songs, and a single "Best of the Box" didn't really need two versions of "Rape Me", especially the acoustic version which features the inexplicable lyric "I'm not a smorgasbord." The boombox demo of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is too LoFi and unlistenable to truly qualify as being part of the "best of", and the absence of such truly excellent tracks like "Help Me I'm Hungry", "Even in His Youth", "D-7", "Anorexicist", "White Lace & Strange", "Verse Chorus Verse", "Return of the Rat" and "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" guarantees that "Sliver" will always be an also-ran to "With the Lights Out." There really is a single disc of truly excellent Nirvana rareties out there. But this isn't it.

4 December 2007 at 09:28  

 Anonymous said...

Just Unnecessary
As any fan of Nirvana is well aware, Kurt Cobain had a fear that was close to outright paranoia about Nirvana's music being milked and exploited to make a buck. All of a sudden, that fear seems totally legitimate.

This is (basically) the 3rd "Greatest Hits" cd that's been released under the band's banner. Nirvana only had three studio released cds. Well ... four if you count 'Incesticide.'

If you're a younger fan and you want a terrific introduction to the band's work save your money from cd and save up for the 'With the Lights Out' box-set. It doesn't cost too much and is a great way to break into the band.

A true Nirvana fan understands that the only meaning behind this piece is dollar signs.

4 December 2007 at 09:29  

 Anonymous said...

For an inside look, and if you're on a budget

"Sliver: The best of the box" is a compilation of material from 2004s four-disc box set "With the Lights Out." This new compilation, as its title suggests, curls the best material from the larger box set. Three additional songs, demos of "Spank Thru," "Sappy," and Come as you are" are also included.

The CD includes home demos, radio appearances, and live recordings. The CD flows chronologically, from Cobain's earliest demo with Fecal Matter, to demos recorded in 1994, right before Cobain's death. Some songs are studio demos, while others were recorded on just a boom-box; therefore the quality of these songs varies from poor to good.

"Sliver" both sees the evolution of Cobain as a songwriter, as well as looks at some of his best known songs in their embryonic stage. Some songs, like the stripped down "Sliver" are fantastic and rival the finished product. But even the songs that are of poor-to-fair quality are of historical importance and give the listener an inside look at the songs as works-in-progress.

"Sliver" contains some lost gems that never made it onto the studio albums, like the subdued "Clean up before she comes" and the off-beat rock-a-billy "Ain't it a shame." "Old Age" sounds a bit like a sped-up "Something in the Way," and is up-to-par with the rest of "Nevermind." A home demo of one of Cobain's last songs, "Do Re Me" had great potential. It's a little rough-around-the-edge, but could have been a classic if it had been touched-up and recorded in the studio. Other tracks like Fecal Matter's "Spank Thru" and "Oh the Guilt" don't quite measure up, but should be of interest to fans of the band.

Being mostly a CD of demos, these songs posses an atmospheric, eerie low-fi intrigue, akin to the sound of the Velvet Underground. While the finished songs are ultimately better, these demos are well worth a listen.

Both the demos and live recordings see the band at its rawest, it not finest hour.

If you don't have time and/or money to invest in the larger "With the Lights Out" box set, but are interested in Nirvana's songs as works-in-progress, this CD is highly recommended. The inclusion of the excellent "Old Age" and "Do Re Me," alone is enough reason to buy this album. Fans should also be interested in hearing Cobain's earliest recording, "Spank Thru" (1985) when he was still a teen.

4 December 2007 at 09:29  

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