This is my first shot at being a music columnist, but what the hell. We all have to expand our horizons once in a while, right?
Through hell and high water, Nirvana’s final studio track has finally surfaced online. Though a court battle with a shrew of a woman who had no right blocking anything, and the death of its creator, the final blip on the Nirvana radar has reached the general public’s ears.
It surfaced online over last weekend (9/14ish), a local radio station picked it up yesterday and started it playing once an hour until midnight tonight. I got a pretty decent handle on it over the radio and managed to finally find an MP3 this evening.
The first word that comes to mind after listening to the three-minute-and-change track is “unfinished.” On the Until It Sleeps single from Metallica, the B-side is an early recording of the music that would eventually become the song, with Hetfield just grunting out random noises in the background that would eventually be replaced with the lyrics to the song. I get that sense in the second half of this song as Kurt just repeats “You Know You’re Right” and various intonations of “hey” and “yeah” over and over again.
The worst part about that is: the beginning of the song is very, VERY good. It begins with a typical Nirvana, very Come As You Are type bass riff which Kurt more or less speaks over with very Nirvana-ish lyrics that is “somewhat senseless unless you’re high.” It picks up quickly into the metalish buzzing guitar riff that has been copied by just about every metal band since them. It also resounds with that Kurt Cobain intensity that is prevalent through out most of Nirvana’s song, where you can just feel him trying to get his point across, even though it’s very likely that no one understands it.
Unfortunately, the song doesn’t really ever hit a stride right about at 2:30 mark, where it feels like it’s time for another verse or, at least, some sort of bridge, the song just continues with repition of the chorus for thirty or forty seconds before slowing into the fade, and then signing off with just drums.
This song definitely leaves me hanging and wanting more. I could see it as a first single to a new album or at least a first track on a CD. If that was the sense they were going for, they did a great job. Rather, my guess is it’s a song that just never quite got finished, which is why it was never released.
Hardcore Nirvana fans will probably like it because it’s more of what the band did well. It’s a very radio-friendly song with a catchy bass line that’s simple to remember and play, but with lyrics that speak to whomever Kurt was trying to speak. As a fringe Nirvana fan, leaning toward not particularly caring about them, I think it’s a very good song, and it’s a single that might have made me think about getting whatever CD it was on had it ever gotten finished.
Final Rating: B-
I can’t give it a C because I do like the first half, but I can’t give it a high B because gives me that stupid sense of being unfinished. Would have likely been much higher had a completed version ever been made.
Worth a listen if you can find an mp3 but you’re not going to buy the box set based solely on it.
End Transmission
