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Nevermind has aged badly?


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Love love love In Utero and Unplugged. Still listen to them regularly. But every once in a while, I'll throw on Nevermind and really enjoy it. Seems the consensus is great songs, crap production (although I think the huge bombastic sound really works for SLTS, seeing as it is a monster song).

 

Any chance of Nevermind ever being re-released "stripped down," a la The Beatle's Let It Be...Naked? That would be amazing, IMO.

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I think the phrase "aged badly" indicates that after some time away you sense or hear flaws that maybe were missed out when it was first released.

 

The funny thing is that most of the music geeks I grew up around (and I myself wasn't really a music geek - I was sort of in the middle between music geek and jock) dismissed both Nevermind and Ten because of its slick production sound. So in that sense, I don't think Nevermind and Ten have aged poorly - I think they have always sounded "too slick" for their own good. For me, it has nothing to do with the time period or the technology available. The production team simply over-polished the mix.

 

Also, Ten was always considered Classic Rock formula around the people I knew growing up in Washington. In all honesty, it was Vs. that gave Pearl Jam respect amongst the die-hard music scenesters I knew.

 

In my humble opinion, in the '90-95 Grunge period, Soundgarden as a whole surpasses both Nirvana and Pearl Jam for quality music. May not be the best example of "grunge" but the music itself is great.

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I always like Bleach more than Nevermind.

 

Pearl Jam? Never bought into 'em.

 

And, in general, I liked Mudhoney more than Nirvana. "Touch me I'm sick"--ah, good stuff.

 

The grunge era of 89-94 was a great time of my life. I was slackin' with the best of 'em-definitely doing my best to avoid a tie and any sort of responsibility......I recall Nevermind as breathing a breath of fresh air and energy to a very wornout rock scene. I saw most of the principle players in the grunge movement except Nirvana (who opened for Eleventh Dream Day-i was late to that show because I stopped at a party beforehand-DOH!), lived in Spain, did multiple tours with the Dead, quit a job on principle, traveled & camped at most of the National Parks out west. Simply put, I had a blast as a slacker and the grunge bands were a major player in that soundtrack.

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BADMOTORFINGER is a bad ass record. i listen to that quite often.

 

 

and Alice in Chains (at least the Dirt album)

 

 

dirt, sap & especially jar of flies. Flies is an amazing album. i prefer their unplugged to nirvana's. always been a much bigger AIC fan than any of the other 'seattle' bands.

 

I even think that Stone Temple Pilots Purple album is a good listen. Soundgarden though, truly are my favourite band from that time. Ben Shepherd's work always interested me the most in the band. Anyone that has not got the album Hater (which is Shepherd and Cameron's side project along with a couple of others), should get it - that still sounds great!

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If Nevermind would have came out when I was 16,I'm sure I would have been talking about how important it was to me.But I was 30,& my tastes were drastically different by then.My son (18) loves all the grunge era bands so he's got me to respect that era more than I perhaps would have.

 

A non-musical aside:one thing that always used to piss me off was the whole "Kurt & Courtney are/were the John & Yoko of the '90's" thing.No effin' way dudes.No one could ever convince me of that.

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If Nevermind would have came out when I was 16,I'm sure I would have been talking about how important it was to me.But I was 30,& my tastes were drastically different by then.My son (18) loves all the grunge era bands so he's got me to respect that era more than I perhaps would have.

 

A non-musical aside:one thing that always used to piss me off was the whole "Kurt & Courtney are/were the John & Yoko of the '90's" thing.No effin' way dudes.No one could ever convince me of that.

 

 

Uh yea - I saw a shirt once that had Kurt on one side and John Lennon on the other side.

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I think "Nevermind" holds up better than "Ten". Alive is about the only track I still listen to from "Ten."

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The "grunge" era came about during my early 20's so I didn't exactly have the self-pitying, woe-is-me attitude which unfortunately was attached to the music of that time, but I did enjoy the hell out of that music. Radio/MTV had gotten very stale at that time so it was exciting to have a bunch of new bands getting some air and actually playing rock. Not over produced metal bands singing lousy pop songs over heavily distorted guitars, but actual rock bands. So "Nevermind" is still relevant to me. I don't listen to it very often, but it is still a vehicle which takes my mind back to the days of a life I don't live any more. To me that means it hasn't aged poorly. It still does what music is supposed to do.

 

On a related note, this reminds me of one of my greatest irritants during the "grunge" era. The "alternative" vs "classic" arguement. People spent so much time trying to figure out if something was "alternative" enough to be cool. Who gives a shit? If it's rock and you dig it, why worry about further labeling it? People ended up closing their minds to great music just because it didn't fit into what their niche was being told it should be listening to. I'm afraid this trend still exists today but for me I saw the origins back then. Oh well, I'm rambling.

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I was 11 when Nevermind came out, so it was a huge record for me and my friends. It opened a lot of bands up to us (like the pixies, the 'mats, meat puppets, etc.). In Utero was the bigger record among my buddies though. And yeah, it did seem rebellious to us at the time and it was. You gotta think about the context here people. The hair metal crap that was out around the time was pretty gay-sounding to me. My parents didn't want my brother and I to listen to that stuff. So, they had no clue about NIrvana, the Smashing Pumpkins , Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, etc. They were the perfect bands for us because my parents just didn't have a clue. Of course they freaked when Kurt commited suicide. They asked if we had any of their records - we denied it.

 

I still give nevermind a spin about once a month. It's just a classic record and still sounds great to me.

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I was a little too young to really be swept up in Nevermind craze when it came out, though I do have a little recollection of Cobain's death in 1994. I've always found myself a bit more interested in Cobain as a person then his actual music. I probably got more out of reading Heavier Then Heaven then I have out of listening to any Nirvana album outside of the Unplugged CD.

 

I really enjoyed Nevermind when I finally got around to buying it when I was in high school, but the two criticisms I hear about the album it's overproduced and most of the music it inspired was pretty terrible are both valid. It's a good record, there have certainly been better albums made before it and after it. I've still not been able to wrap my head around In Utero yet, it has some great songs but I could give or take about half the record. I think the MTV Unplugged CD is fantastic though, and that's by far what I listen to the most of theirs.

 

--Mike

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