Word: nirvana
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...Hendricks' sadnesses are our reward. Miserable he may be, but he's not about to abandon his calling: that of writing spiffily memorable rock tunes, enough of them to drag us out of our grunge-induced lethargy up to the heights of Punk Rock Simplicity Mountain (which is where Nirvana thought they were leading us in the first place, right?). Most of Karl's songs have a crunchy college-rock beat (like Superchunk) though a few of the best, like "Romantic Stories from the War," are slow dissections of his own self-pity (don't worry: no violins, no keyboards...
...Nirvana: a place or state of oblivion to care, pain or external reality. This is not heaven, surely, but a state in which suffering is transcended and desire extinguished. In any case, ever since the members of the post-punk rock band Nirvana became the surprise darlings of MTV and pop radio, they've gone through a media barrage that seemed the very opposite of nirvana. Now their powerful new album takes all the band's media-glare anguish and alchemizes it into noisy, brainy rock 'n' roll. "Teenage angst has paid off well/ Now I'm bored...
...Utero: inside the womb; before birth. The title is a misnomer. Nirvana has been reborn. Its 1991 album Nevermind was a great leap forward (after Bleach, in 1989), selling more than 4 million copies. Song after song started off with gorgeous guitar hooks, as in the anxious chords that kicked off Smells Like Teen Spirit, or the bouncy bass-guitar strumming that launched Lithium. Its punk-inspired, we-couldn't-care-less ethos seemed to reflect the restless apathy some young people felt toward their times. "Oh well, whatever, nevermind," Cobain sang on Teen Spirit. The strength of Nevermind...
Grunge: loud, crunching rock 'n' roll. Grunge is dead. Put away the flannels that dressed it up, because real innovators like nothing better than to tear off the labels stuck on them by critics. Producer Butch Vig, Nirvana singer- guitarist Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl helped originate the grunge sound. On In Utero, they enlist the help of producers Steve Albini (Breeders) and Scott Litt (R.E.M) to help dismantle it. The two producers make the album a satisfying whole...
Alternative rock: however Nirvana defines it. Despite the fears of some alternative-music fans, Nirvana hasn't gone mainstream, though this potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go Nirvana. In Utero's one misstep may be the dubious song Rape Me: "Rape me, my friend . . . rape me again." It's meant to be antirape, but beer-blown frat boys may or may not get the irony. The last and best song, All Apologies, seems to anticipate and confront such questions: "What else should I be/ All apologies . . . What else could I write...