Nirvana - Bleach review
Hey all! Today I’ll be reviewing Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach. I know Load won the last poll but I haven’t fully listened to Load yet and when the first thing I saw when I opened the site was 2 posts that had 30+ comments and very few (if at all) likes, I felt like it would be to good to post something actually entertaining to the site again.
Bleach is the debut album of famous American “grunge” band, Nirvana. This album was released in 1988, back when they were nowhere as known as they are now. Anyways, to the review.
The Review
First thing I’d like to point is that as far as I know, “grunge” isn’t really an actual genre and is more of a marketing term, and to me this album is punk rock (although with a lot of metal influence). Anyway, skipping the genre talk, this is a great album! As someone who only knew Nirvana from the more known songs in the later albums, I was kind of surprised by how heavy this album is. It’s filled with aggression and speed, and the guitars have pretty unique tones I haven’t really hard of anywhere else. I’ve heard similar stuff, of course, but nothing quite like it. I dont play any instruments myself, but so far as I know this album doesn’t have a lot of complicated playing in it (as typical with punk rock).That’s not a problem at all, though – while simple, the instrumental is very memorable and never outstay their welcome. The guitar and bass work are especially awesome. Also, the vocals are great! I love Kurt Cobain’s vocal performance in this album a lot, I feel like he fits the instrumentals perfectly. Not a lot to complain about musically, aside from variety – there isn’t a whole lot of it on this album, at least to me. Sure, there are some songs heavier than others (e.g. Floyd the Barber, Paper Cuts) and About A Girl is calmer than the other tracks, but aside from that the songs sound fairly similar. As for the lyrical content – to me, it’s just plain weird. I’m pretty sure there’s meaning behind most of the songs, but I can’t decypher a lot by myself. It’s kind of cryptic. That’s pretty much all.
Overall, Bleach is a damn good album without a lot of problems. I’d recommend this to anyone that likes punk rock, metal, hard rock or is looking to get into punk rock or the heavier side of rock music in general.
FINAL RATING: 9/10