Nirvana – Bleach

Basically "stoner music", it sounds very slow and heavy. Amazing album!

I thought my jacket was scratched on the back cover where the credit for Lisa Orth is partly missing. Looks like all the first UK pressings have this, and many of the bootlegs picked up this detail too. I'll upload an image.

One of the greatest albums of all time.

Too often seen in the context of the band's later success, "Bleach" preserves a perfect snapshot of the world which bred grunge. Legend has it that most of the lyrics on this record were improvised or written mere minutes before recording. The true beauty is that sandwiching the utter nadir that is "Paper Cuts" and "Negative Creep" are a few expertly crafted pop tunes about trying to get laid and feeling pessimistic. The two tracks in question are sheer genius. On "Paper Cuts", Kurt relates the story of a friend of his, kept prisoner in his parents' basement for years, before delivering the band-defining chorus, "Why? I said so. Nirvana... Nirvana... Nirvana...", while on "Negative Creep", he laments a general loss of innocence and admits, "This is getting to be a drone."

It's been said that Kurt's strength as a songwriter lies in elevating the pedestrian to the realm of the sacred. Nowhere is this more clear than on tunes like, "Scoff" ("In my eyes, I'm not lazy. In your face, it's not over. In your room, I'm no older. In your eyes, I'm not worth shit.") or the classic "Swap Meet", which is about a couple that sell necklaces at a swap meet and bang strangers.