MTV Unplugged In New York
by Nirvana

Fantastic release that shows a very different side of Nirvana that I wish they would have been able to explore more on record. I'm glad Cobain stuck to his guns and played mostly covers and album tracks because it makes this Unplugged far more interesting than most of them. I also love that they left the in between track banter on the album because it shows that they were just a bunch of dudes having fun and being loose. This album is making me reconsider my rule of no live albums on my charts. (Edited)

From Strangel TOP 100 COMMENTER 08/03/2017 04:42 | #195408 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

The thing that makes this a great album as opposed to just another unplugged best-of jam is that it demonstrated Nirvana's talent once they were out from behind their mask of noise. It is also an endearing insight into Kurt's own self-consciousness, and how it could be subdued by his ability to immerse himself within the essence of the song he performs.

From WaitAndSeer 03/27/2023 01:40 | #295500 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

This album completely changed everything I thought about Nirvana as a band, and Cobain as a reluctant icon. I’ve been listening to it pretty much nonstop for weeks now. If you’ll forgive my long-windedness, I feel the need to break down exactly why this album has touched me in such a profound way.

Before hearing this performance, I felt that I would be fine if I never heard anything from Nevermind ever again; it all seemed so overplayed and overanalyzed. It turns out these feelings were mostly centered on “Come As You Are,” which even in its stripped-down performance here I find somewhat grating in its sheer familiarity. Regardless, every other performance from this set is so spellbinding and revelatory that I can’t give it anything but a perfect 10.

Cobain’s cover-heavy setlist says everything about how constrained he felt by the genre/style that made him famous. Of course, that story is now the stuff of legend, and the mythology of it all does threaten to overwhelm the music itself at times. But you don’t need to know any of the lore for the raw emotion of his performance to pierce any cynicism that would suggest his attitude was all an act, or merely cries for help from an addict already beyond the point of no return.

The tunes here are imminently listenable, even when their lyrics go to the darkest, most depressive places. The only songs here that could be seen as remotely positive on the surface, the Meat Puppets’ “Oh Me” and “All Apologies,” are still cut through with withering self-effacement and sarcasm in Cobain’s delivery. Despite this, the beauty with which they are arranged in this acoustic setting can’t help but feel life-affirming.

I read once that all great art is built on contradictions. I’m not learned enough in music or art history to say with confidence that this is true across the board, but it strikes me as particularly true in the case of Nirvana. Cobain made a career out of dragging his inner demons into the open, often literally screaming them into the ether through shredded vocal cords; this complete lack of self-consciousness earned him unexpected success, and even worship by some, but I imagine you can only scratch at a raw nerve as he did for so long before the artistic gains that approach provides are outweighed by the damage it does to one’s mental health. Yet the music itself, despite the tragic events it foretold—or perhaps even precipitated—serves as a great comfort to the many who suffer as Kurt did. That Nirvana’s music endures as it has suggests that there are many more out there who fit this description than most in “polite society” would admit.

Depression and other mental illnesses can often feel crushingly stigmatizing, as if there is no one on earth who could understand how you feel. Yet here is a cultural document that displays how someone who was clearly suffering, even despairing, could mold that pain into something that is often achingly beautiful. Many gripe at Cobain’s lack of technical ability, which he himself was often quick to point out, yet none of that matters against his sheer depth and intensity of feeling. Listen to his near-apocalyptic vocal performance on “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” and tell me it doesn’t speak to something deep in your core, some part of yourself that feels wronged and forgotten by the barrage of a cold, uncaring world.

Great art doesn’t always have to offer a remedy to all of society’s ills; sometimes it’s enough to know that someone, somewhere once shared your pain, and that the possibility exists for that pain to be channeled into something so beautiful and haunting that it will last for all time. (Edited)

From Brad1770 TOP 100 COMMENTER 11/30/2020 05:30 | #261671 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I’ve always been a huge Nirvana guy and was there in the 90’s headfirst into the grunge scene when it was happening there and then, my very own “ I Was There” story to tell the grandkids so hear me out here

So in Australia we didn’t get to see the actual Nirvana Unplugged performance for close to a year after it took place & I remember the night well as I was at a work Christmas party the night it went to air on ABC our national broadcaster. I sorta recall drinking heavily and smoking hooch and racing home in a taxi completely whacked off my skull and watching the performance replayed on VCR I’d set to record. TBH it was pretty amazing and I would wear the tape out watching the concert over and over as the months rolled by. I didn’t know the covers but it was Nirvana so it was awesome and that was that

Fast forward 25 years and I’m a dad and my partying days are long behind me but my love of music has never waned so with the wisdom of hind sight and no longer Nirvana hero worshiping I took the time to reacquaint myself with MTV Unplugged performance but this time the 25th Anniversary Edition that came out in 2019 and something dawned on me ... the concert wasn’t anywhere near as good as I recalled

Look , the actual Nirvana tracks are and always were great - “About A Girl” , “Polly” , “On A Plain” , “Pennyroyal Tea” simply timeless , whilst the Leadbelly closer “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” with Kurts cracking vocals and emotion close to his finest moment captured to tape

However ...

I have a real problem with the remaining covers and in particular the Meat Puppets ones. Seriously - 3 Meat Puppets covers of tracks that really aren’t that great off the same Meat Puppets album (‘II’) running conservatively on the set list really hasn’t aged well at all. The Bowie cover is ok at best , and The Vaselines is really an odd selection. I get it they were trying to do something unique and not regurgitate the hits I’m simply saying they could have spread their musical net a little wider or not included the covers at all save for Leadbelly

Nirvana Unplugged

Visually Great
Nirvana Tracks Great
Leadbelly Cover Great
Remaining Covers Nope

This is one of the most well regarded live albums for a reason. Nirvana not only managed to make some of the best albums in the 90's, but arguably, one of the best live albums of all time. The whole thing feels laid back, yet right at home with what Nirvana usually sounds like. I get chills from this album, being so passionate and emotional, with great production and overall fantastic atmosphere. The cover's are among the best songs on this album, and the renditions of all their original's are pretty much on par with the studio versions. I would say by quite a bit the best version of "About a Girl" is on this album. Not to bash the original, but I feel like this one sounds less forced and awkward, and really natural. To this day, this album and Nirvana as a whole is among the most important bands of the 90's, and even of all time, and for good reasons.