Nevermind: 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
3/5
Chances are, and statistics suggest, you already own this album in some form. But for the benefit of any tweens idly skimming the rest of the mag after getting their Jason Derülo fix, Nirvana were a loud, noisy rock band from nowhere in particular who became famous for leading a scene that attacked the pompous, ego-driven excess of the ruling rock aristocracy but who, in hindsight, basically did all the same things. There were drugs, public feuds, questionable fashions and McMansions. There were also solid gold pop songs, in Nirvana’s case smudged with a fuzz that, rather than obscuring the beauty of the tracks, worked like lens Vaseline to enhance their charm.
The band’s catalogue corpse has been picked clean over the years, thanks to the financial interests of various parties (*cough, cough, Courtney Love, cough*), so it’s surprising there’s anything left to add to this anniversary re-release. But the extras on offer here, particularly the collected B-sides, are certainly worthy of note, providing you haven’t already illegally downloaded them.
Probably best are the Boombox Demos, super-raw original studio cuts more in the scratchy vein of Bleach than the polished sound of the final album. Realistically, this edition is probably aimed more at callow youths who’ve never owned a copy of the album rather than the nerdy completists – besides, Nirvana nerds would surely balk at feeding some faceless corporation another penny of hard slacked-for cash. Which is a shame as the suit-wearing, suburb-dwelling sellouts can get their bloodstained hands on an even more impressive Super Deluxe version, weighing in at four CDs, one DVD and around Dhs430, but featuring audio and video of a classic 1991 Seattle concert.
