Nirvana's long-awaited box set finally hit the streets just before Thanksgiving, after years of legal skirmishes between Kurt Cobain's widow Courtney Love and the band's surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novaselic.
I had originally hoped to review this release for the A&E section of my high school newspaper four years ago. Instead, Love managed to release a greatest hits album, probably unnecessary for a band with only two major label albums, including Nirvana's infamous "last" song, "You Know You're Right," as an exclusive, as it "could be a hit potentially worth millions of dollars."
The new set, With the Lights Out, does not feature any leftover song as shockingly catchy?after all, the song's chorus consists of a single word, "pain," screamed repeatedly by a man three months away from taking a shotgun to his face?brilliant, and as polished as "You Know You're Right." ("Sappy" comes close, but it's not all that rare, thanks to the age of file-sharing, and it doesn't have the emotional resonance.)
What it does contain, however, is pretty much everything we the fans didn't know. Unearthed would be a great title for the box if Johnny Cash hadn't just posthumously used it. With the Lights Out's three CDs include 33 songs that do not appear on any of Nirvana's studio or live albums or the Incesticide and Nirvana compilations, 24 and a half of which are originals. Kurt Cobain's home demo tapes, from the silly little ditty "Beans," featuring helium-fueled vocals, to a pair of post-In Utero tunes. Embryologic Nevermind and In Utero songs with different lyrics and arrangements. Butch Vig's original "Smells Like Teen Spirit" mix, which sounds more like Bleach than Nevermind. A cover of Led Zep's "Heartbreaker" from the band's very first show at someone's house, for crying out loud.
The release, with all this rare music, liner notes by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore documenting the good old pre-DGC days, pretty packaging, and a DVD including a 1988 concert at Novoselic's mom's house, is fantastic. Everyone involved did a great job putting this together, even if it took them long enough.
Now on to the music.
There are certainly gems here. Cobain responds to an audience request for "Heartbreaker" with "I don't know how to play it!" before making a valiant effort. The early "Mrs. Buttersworth" features a spoken monologue where Cobain plans to make and sell shells on burlap and plywood as art so "maybe someday I can get rid of that piss-stained mattress I've been sleeping on." A rollicking cover of the Velvet Underground's "Here She Comes Now" is more accessible than the original.
Back in 1989, Cobain and Mark Lanegan of the Screaming Trees decided to get together and write some tunes, but they forgot them and became a Leadbelly cover band called the Jury. Three of its songs are included here, "Ain't It A Shame" being particularly hilarious and enjoyable. At the other end of the spectrum, the solo acoustic "You Know You're Right" is even ghostlier than MTV Unplugged's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" This song really was the cream of the unreleased crop.
With the Lights Out is truly fans-only, more so than the average box set. Many of these elaborate packages are pretty much extended greatest hits. Nirvana's career wasn't exactly long, so its set exhibits mostly unfinished work. The band plods through 10 repetitive minutes of "Scentless Apprentice" in a Rio de Janeiro session without totally figuring out what makes the song so scary and badass on In Utero, but you can hear them getting closer by the end of the take. Cobain hasn't finished the lyrics to "Moist Vagina" yet, but he tackles the song with an energy absent from the previously-released, finished version.
The intimacy level across the box set is far higher than on Nirvana's live albums. Much of With the Lights Out is music to listen to carefully with headphones on. At some point, you wonder how many people would really want to listen to anybody's badly-recorded demos? Well, remember how many people bought the Beatles Anthologies? But how many fans of Nirvana and un-watered-down grunge are left today?
If you sorta liked "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "All Apologies" on the radio, stay away. But if Nirvana was ever your favorite band, do yourself a favor. Pick up With the Lights Out. Dig into it. And remember.