It’s 30 years since Nirvana released Nevermind. Has it stood the test of time?
To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, 1991 was a very good year: good for guitar music anyway. Alternative rock took a giant leap forward with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and their magnum opus, Blood Sugar Sex Magik; heavy metal was redefined by Metallica’s planet-shafting self-titled fifth album; and grunge, previously an obscure punk/ metal subgenre from Seattle, suddenly became every jock’s listening choice thanks to the vast impact of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Grunge purists whined; record company execs scrambled to buy airline tickets to the rainy northwest; and plaid-shirt salesmen popped champagne bottles.
Bassist Krist Novoselic of Nirvana was responsible for more of Nirvana’s success than you might think. While guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain was the band’s primary songwriter, and drummer Dave Grohl added drive and dynamics, this tall, gangling Washingtonian made the most of the melodic opportunities presented to him.
However, Novoselic never hogged the limelight or indeed the full frequency range: his bass-lines were definitely an important part of each song’s melodic content and often an actual hook, but the songwriting remained the trio’s focus. Or, as he once wrote in a much-read blog, “I’ve approached playing bass as a bridge between the rhythm section and the guitar/vocal melody. Nothing new there.”
Perhaps not. However, Nevermind sounded exactly that – new – on its release in 1991. Some of its fresh feel may have been down to producer Butch Vig, who gave the songs a full, rich sound with a definite emphasis on melodies rather than lyrical miserablism. Cobain’s songwriting, which he described as a combination of his favourite influences – the Beatles and Black Sabbath – was also a new, invigorating formula, at least to those listeners who hadn’t heard the Melvins, Mudhoney, and the other alternative bands whose sound both shaped and preceded that of Nirvana.
In bass terms, Nevermind is still a treat. You may possibly have heard the big single, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. The most obvious example of the quiet-loud-quiet-loud template which overreductive critics later assigned to Cobain’s songwriting, this song devolves during its verses to Novoselic’s simple four-note bass-line. It’s the simplest pattern possible, and Novoselic plays it with total skill, playing microscopically behind the beat to lend it extra weight. But don’t forget ‘On A Plain’, either, in which the bass executes a brief solo run after each chorus.
Furthermore, Novoselic’s picked playing gave his parts a staccato presence that cried out to be mixed high in any given Nirvana song: see ‘Lithium’ for example, where his line carries the vocals along with great character. His choice of notes is economical: you won’t hear any octave pops or extended runs on the album, even though his admiration for the way that his hero Geezer Butler used those tricks to enhance a riff has always been apparent.
The enormous presence of Nevermind drew attention to Novoselic and his bass playing, inspiring a generation of musicians to join the war against Nirvana’s lyrical targets. What those targets were is not easy to say, although the band’s generally anti-corporate position and distaste for anyone wearing spandex seemed clear.
Thirty years later, it’s impossible to deny the sea-change brought about by this band. Guitar music was redefined in the wake of Nevermind, even if grunge lasted no longer than Cobain himself, who drew a line under his career in the most permanent way possible in April 1994. These songs are his lasting legacy.
You won’t hear any octave pops anywhere on Nevermind