(Credits: Far Out / HBO Documentary Films)
Most people consider Nevermind as the career-defining turning point in Nirvana’s career for reasons that quite literally explain themselves. However, their debut, Bleach, is often underappreciated as one of the most significant moments in grunge history.
Commercially, Bleach might not be the kind of record that people immediately turn to when thinking about material that changed or revolutionised the entire scene. In fact, Cobain even once said he didn’t rate it all that much, arguing that “the songs are slow, and grungy, and they’re tuned down to really low notes, and I screamed a lot.”
Cobain likely felt a little sceptical about the material even as they were recording it, already having songs like ‘Like A Girl’ and ‘Polly’ up his sleeve, which meant that Bleach naturally took on a different feel and tone to where the singer was at creatively at that point. Their main focus was choosing songs that were as “abrasive” as possible, a choice that sparked their position as grunge icons and set the stage for all the successes that came after.
While it’s easy to understand why Cobain became so dismissive of the record, especially after the success of records like Nevermind, it still feels significant when looking at the full picture of Nirvana and how they rose to the top of an entire movement. After all, we can listen now and pick apart all the moments when the music faltered or tropes they’d go on to reuse over and over again, but that’s also what makes it so special – it was the beginning of their story.
There were also some solid moments, especially when you think about the broader cohesion of tracklisting and setlisting and the ways they toyed with dynamics to make certain moments resonate more strongly. ‘Blew’, for instance, marked a strong opener for the record and “grand finale”, as Cobain called it, for their live sets, with a dark, low, grunge-y riff that immediately explodes into an energetic and commanding beat.
It captures everything the record was about then – fast, good, heavy music made quickly to blow people’s heads off. As Cobain reflected to Metal Forces Magazine, “We just recorded it in three days and nights and made sure there weren’t a lot of hi-tech effects on it. We wanted it to be as loud and as in-your-face as possible, as raw as we could.”
He went on, “The first day, we rushed so much that only ‘Blew’ was properly finished. We attempted to record the LP tuned past the D, I don’t know if you know how low that is, but it’s very low indeed. Well, we know that we can’t be that heavy.”
The level they achieved was entirely accidental, and they initially tried to match all other songs to the low register before quickly realising it wasn’t such a good idea. As Krist Novoselic recalled to Seattle Times, “We came back the next day and decided the idea wasn’t so hot, and we recorded over most of it with things tuned back up a little. In fact, ‘Blew’, with that growly bass, is the only survivor of that experiment.”
Therefore, ‘Blew’ well and truly became a one-time thing, a snippet of the band at their heaviest and proof of a level of artistry they were never able to recreate ever again. In doing so, however, they launched themselves as grunge legends with a sound that had more depth than many of their more established rock peers.
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