MTV Unplugged In New York (live album) by Nirvana (US)

A thoroughly enjoyable live album that allows us to be able to see the more stripped back side of Nirvana. This works really well throughout the album with it giving the music a unique change up that allows Cobain's vocal to shine. He sounds great on this record and is at the centre of absolutely everything which makes this record even more special. The song selection is smart with the original tracks working well in this acoustic style and then the covers are instant classics for the most part with Lake Of Fire and The Man Who Sold The World being two of my personal highlights. Where this albums peaks for me is tracks 1,2 and 4 and then the closing 3 songs which end the record on such a phenomenal note. They are all so strong in terms of their performances and passion that it makes it so easy to just fall in love with the record. This is helped by just how personal this album feels due to the audience reactions and the group talking to each other that you feel involved and invested in the sound. Overall, a great live album which shows a new side of Nirvana that would have been extremely exciting to see them explore as this shows so much potential.

From WaitAndSeer 03/27/2023 01:40

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.

From Jboy56 03/10/2022 13:19

Had to admit, a wonderful live album.

Buen disco!!!!!
Grandísima la versión de Bowie

Nirvana prove that they are more than just a grunge band that can only play heavy music by showing their softer, more vulnerable side on this acoustic live album, and as a result it is one of their finest achievements in their career

The only Nirvana album I ever feel like listening to. The "All Apologies" into "Where Did you Sleep Last Night?" closing is one of the best ever.

I don't really like Nirvana and their studio albums, but I loved this album from start to finish. Definitely my favorite album by them, and one of the best live albums.

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Une sorte de best of accoustic de Nirvana. Les difficultés de Kurt Cobain à monter dans les aigues sur certain rendrent ce live touchant

Amazing start to finish.
10/10