Monday, January 30, 2012

Nevermind Gets a 7 out of 10

Guys, you're all going to want to run, not walk, to the iTunes Store to get your hands on an ancient album that a leading critic at the Yale Daily News has given a 7 out of 10.  The ancient album is called Nevermind, and it's by Nirvana.  You may have heard of them because they're the band the Foo Fighters grew out of.

Anyway, this is definitely worth hearing because Nirvana has inspired everyone from Nickelback to Lana Del Rey, and Pitchfork declared the record to be an all-time classic.  Now granted, they're no Radiohead, but for an ancient band, they're really not that bad.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/jan/28/album-review-nevermind/

[postscript: It's also possible that this review is one of the best dry, sarcastic jokes put to paper.  But all of the guy's other by-lines are legit.  Also the YDN is not known for dry, sarcastic humor.  I think it's real... but if it's fake, the guy's a genius.]

5 comments:

Quinapalus said...

I definitely don't think it's a fake review. You'd have to be our age to even get the joke.

And I don't know man...Nirvana will forever hold a special place in the hearts of old men like us, but I don't think the kid is totally wrong in his analysis. Nirvana's greatest lasting impact on current pop music probably is bands like Nickelback. Also, it's sad but true: they're no Radiohead.

drischord said...

I'm not giving the guy a pass based on his age. You don't have to be our age to get that joke-- if he even intended one.

This kid is writing about an album that came out 2 years before he was born. So let's put ourselves in his shoes. In my case, I was born in late 1979. Practically 1980. Here are some of the albums that came out 2 years before that: My Aim Is True, Rumours, Talking Heads: 77, Aja, Never Mind the Bollocks, ELO Out of the Blue, Street Survivors, Slowhand, Exodous, Van Halen I, Darkness on the Edge of Town, the list goes on...

Would ANY of us, while calling ourselves music critics, write anything close to what he did about any of those albums?

I still wonder if he's joking. He says that rock is only 40 years old, the concept of non-religious western music is only 400 years old, Smells Like Teen Spirit was "the biggest song of the 90s" and a 20 year-old album is "ancient." He also declares "Something in the Way," which is obviously about being homeless under a bridge, to be meaningless and makes reference to "the late Bob Dylan." Either this is a brilliant joke or myopia at Yale extends even further beyond its mythical reputation.

As for Radiohead, apples to oranges. Plus while Nirvana never made OK Computer or Kid A, they also never made Pablo Honey or The King of Limbs.

Quinapalus said...

I kind of liked King of Limbs.

I also have to admit, I've never heard of half the albums you listed that came out 2 years before we were born, and am only vaguely familiar with most of the others, so I honestly can't say what I'd write about them. I'd predict, however, that were I a 19 year old college kid attempting to write about any of them for my school paper, I'd probably do a worse job than this kid did. I'd probably compare them to Ibsen or something...I seem to remember that at 19 I compared a lot of things to Ibsen that had absolutely no business being compared to Ibsen.

drischord said...

I compared Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to Dark Side of the Moon in the Daily Northwestern.

To this day, I don't know how I feel about that.

drischord said...

I, too, kind of like The King of Limbs-- or at least I think it's okay as opposed to bad. But like Pablo Honey, it is an unimportant album in the history of rock. Needless to say, Nevermind, OK Computer and Kid A are anything but.