3 Comments:

 Anonymous said...

Excellent singles and b-sides
The Nirvana Singles Box is by far the best way to obtain the b-sides to all of Nirvana's singles (and let's not forget the great singles themselves). The singles featured are all from Nevermind and In Utero, and they are:

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. Come As You Are
3. Lithium
4. In Bloom
5. Heart Shaped Box
6. All Apologies/R*pe Me

As great as the singles are, the real reason you'll want this is for the b-sides, which consist of demos and live recordings.

Among these b-sides are "Even In His Youth," one of Nirvana's lost songs (and also one of the best), the demo version of "Aneurysm," which features one of Kurt's best primal screams in the break before the bridge, the six-and-a-half-minute noise fest "Endless, Nameless," aka the hidden track on Nevermind. While I'm on the subject, I should point out that "Endless, Nameless" is a huge enticement to buy this collection, since it is no longer on newer pressings of Nevermind for some reason (I've had two copies in the past five years, and neither of them had it).

"Marigold" is interesting since it features a rare, pre-Foo Fighters lead vocal from Dave Grohl, and "MV" is just plain hilarious. Even during all the turmoil surrounding the band during In Utero, "MV" proves that Kurt still had his patented sense of humor. Oh, and the live versions of "Drain You," "School," "Polly," "Been a Son," and "Sliver" are great illustrations of the immediacy that Nirvana brought to their live performances.

This collection is a must for anyone wanting to dig deeper than Nevermind and In Utero. In fact, many of the songs here are just as essential as their album tracks. If you do buy this, though, be sure to buy it used, because new copies are fairly pricey.

Final verdict: Essential listening, and a must have for Nirvana fans.

4 December 2007 at 09:12  

 Anonymous said...

3.5 stars - Good collection

Although their reign of power was short lived, while it lasted, Nirvana was one of the most popular and best bands on the face of the earth. During their days together as a band they released, three studio albums and several singles. Like many bands, a number of Nirvana's singles contained non-LP tracks, so fans have been desperately hunting them down for quite some time now. And at long last, all of their singles have been brought together! Read on for my review of the Nirvana singles box.

PROS:
-All of Nirvana's singles are available in this set. It's great to finally have all of these together in a single place.
-In addition to the popular single A-Sides, there are also rare B-Sides, which include previously unreleased studio and live sessions. These are the reason fans are going to want this set.

CONS:
-Nirvana made the same mistake any band makes when releasing a singles collection - they did one single per disc! Why scatter across six compact discs what can easily fit on just two? Doing that would have kept production costs lower, and therefore, lowered the suggested retail price.
-This set is both pricey and rare. Accordingly, Nirvana die-hards may be the only ones who want to buy it.
-If you just want this for the rare tracks, why not just go onto eBay and win an auction for one of the many rarities bootlegs that are so frequently auctioned off on there?

OVERALL:
Overall this set was a good idea, but if bands are going to keep putting out singles collections, this "one single per compact disc" thing has got to end. If you're a die-hard Nirvana fan, then this set won't fail to please.

4 December 2007 at 09:13  

 Anonymous said...

Does anybody know that this box set even exists?

Well, I know a few people do, because there were a few reviews here, but it has a mere 45,000-something sales rank. In comparison to Neverminds 500-something after 13 years then thats pretty bad. Even Incesticide and Bleach have better sales-ranks...and those didn't even go platinum, well actually Incesticide eventually did.
Okay, more people should know about this besides Nirvana die-hards, its a very good compilation...but it ISNT great. The reason why this isn't great is, alongside the very high price of $60+ this also has only six singles. I know all the singles are awesome but in total Nirvana made approximately nine singles from Bleach, Nevermind, Incesticide, In Utero and Unplugged. Only the singles off of Nevermind and In Utero appear here. The singles that are missing are 'Love Buzz' (off Bleach, buy it at most Nirvana fansites), 'Sliver' (off Incesticide', buy it at almost all Nirvana fansites) and 'About a Girl' (off Unplugged, buy it at a store near you). These are not the most important singles but they still belong in the box set.
Right, now with that out of the way I can focus on the qualities of the box set. Well for one all of the popular singles are here, they are 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Come as You Are', 'Lithium', 'In Bloom', 'Heart-Shaped Box' and 'Rape Me/All Apologies'. Another thing is that almost every song here is good. That includes even the b-sides, especially on the In Utero singles. If you dont have $60 you can always buy this for about $30 or even less on ebay. And another thing, you have to respect Nirvana for single-handedly destroying horrendous pop bands like Bon Jovi and Poison and bringing other great bands to the mainstream like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam (Alice in Chains too).
Even if you hate the crap-punk and the nu-hell metal (much like I do) thats out today then remember: IT WASNT NIRVANAS FAULT! IT WAS KORN AND BLINK 182, WHO SUCK! Just keep in mind that this is for die-hards ONLY, unless you love Nirvana then you will just say to yourself "this wasn't worth $60+". But I still love this as I am a die-hard.

4 December 2007 at 09:13  

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