Nirvana

It has finally arrived. After all the court cases, copyright custody battles, conspiracy theories, rumours, counter-rumours and outright lies, Nirvana fans can eventually hear the band’s last ever recording before events took their tragic and twisted course.

‘You Know You’re Right’ was recorded in late January 1994 by Adam Kasper prior to Kurt Cobain’s body being discovered in his Seattle home on April 8, the very same date which they were originally due to play a cancelled concert in Dublin’s RDS with Sebadoh. It has become the posthumous totem poll for this collection and the unheard Holy Grail of the Nirvana legacy.

After years of pale imitations and wholesale corporate plagiarism, this is a typically stunning eardrum assault from arguably the greatest rock trio that world has ever known. For a start, there is that voice, growling lowly and softly intoning; “Things have never been so swell / I have never failed to fail.” Dave Grohl beats the bejaysus out of his kit and the vocals explode into that totally different register that once barked; “With the lights out/it’s less dangerous/Here we are now/Entertain us.”

The remaining 14 tracks are a useful if far from comprehensive summation of just how good Nirvana were. Various nuances of their catalogue as recorded by Jack Endino, Butch Vig, Steve Albini and Scott Litt are very fairly represented. My major complaint is the absence of ‘School’ and ‘Negative Creep’ from Bleach, which happened to be the first ever compact disc as opposed to a record or cassette that I ever owned. Both are the finest examples of the Cobain howl in existence and shook me to the core of my very being when this stunned 17-year-old caught them live in 1992.

If you love Nirvana as much as I do, you need this, even if you own the vast bulk of it already. If whatever reason your collection is Kurt free, then start here. You’ll be hustling for copies of Bleach, Incestide, Nevermind, In Utero and Unplugged in New York within a week believe me. Ten years on from when these power chords first reverberated all over the world, it’s glaringly apparent that neither Radiohead nor The Strokes, or anyone else for that matter, will ever, ever come close. Peace, love and empathy Kurt. Forever.