From the start this record takes me back. It was one of the first CDs I ever bought, and I remember listening to it endlessly on my little portable Panasonic player (soon to be replaced by an anti-skip version that actually seemed to skip more).
Today, the whole first side was just one familiar note after another. It sounds good, really good, and it sounds new. It has a timeless quality somehow, which I guess is the hallmark of something great? In that way at least, it strikes me as a huge contrast to much of my old CD collection (which ballooned in university to include way too much flavour of the week terribleness). And then I think, this was in that old collection (since discarded) so why didn't I listen to this more in the later years? Did I change or just forget how good these songs sound?
It's hard to say how I'd feel about this album if I heard it for the first time today. Hard to disconnect from the nostalgia and be objective, and maybe there's no need for that anyway. I like it, I really like it, and I hope there's something out there today for a 14 year old kid to fall into. And then I think that maybe Nevermind is still playing that role. I remember listening to my dad's Beatles albums at that age and, while not totally getting it all, feeling the greatness. While it may be sacrilegious to compare the two bands even to that degree, this has to at least deserve a listen, right? Not because Cobain killed himself, not because this album brought grunge to the mainstream, but because it's really good music.
I remember being in my principal's car (why was I in a car, alone, with M. Dumont? Where were we going? ) when he asked how I was taking Cobain's suicide. I guess he was "relating" to me. I was 13 and he did have sons around my age. It was a little disconcerting though because at the time, Nirvana was a revelation to me - somewhat because it was music that your parents didn't possibly understand and if they knew it at all, they hated it. And there was a certain satisfaction in that.
ReplyDeleteThere was definitely a certain satisfaction in having something your parents did not understand or approve of. For me, the Parental Advisory logo was pretty much a guarantee of that feeling, and the first time I remember having that feeling was a little earlier than Nirvana - it was Run DMC - and that may have to be the next album I write about!
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