As A Friend, As An Old Memory: Nirvana’s Nevermind At 20

My interest in Nirvana started out in a somewhat old-fashioned way: through a burnt copy of their self-titled best-of. Yes, it was possibly one of the last burnt CDs ever non-ironically swapped between friends, but in 2003 or 2004 I was introduced to the pop stylings of Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic. And I say “pop” very much on purpose, as Nirvana’s discography is full of pop songs disguised as heavy rock, and nowhere is that more apparent that on Nevermind, which turns 20 this year and has just been re-released as a deluxe edition.

The two albums that surround Nevermind are both raw and difficult, in the first instance because it’s a debut and in the second because it’s the self-consciously serious follow-up to a huge success. But Nevermind is a perfect album, front loaded with singles that sound fresh after 50 million plays and then padded out with less commercial adventures in sounding dirty but polished. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is one of the ultimate pop songs, with an out-of-this-world chorus that still rips right through you – and it holds up against 20 years of being called one of the ultimate pop songs. ‘Come As You Are’ and ‘Territorial Pissings’ are party songs for smelly teenagers (we’ve all been there), ‘Lithium’ remains a riveting and uncomfortable look inside a troubled mind, and ‘In Bloom’ still hosts one of Nirvana’s strongest melodies. All of them are classics.

The bonus tracks that come with the 2-CD deluxe edition (I didn’t get the big super deluxe box – what am I, a millionaire?) offer little in the way of repeat-listen material but there are many fascinating demo versions and help to tell the story of the record. Nevermind is just a year younger than I am, so I didn’t consciously live through the album’s release, however, like many, I associate many of the songs with being a teenager. This fresh, expanded look at a bunch of hugely famous songs makes me feel like I’m listening to that burnt CD for the first time again, and will no doubt be the friend of many a 14-year-old in years to come.

Just Give Me A Little Bit More: Kylie’s Expanded Aphrodite Tour Edition

To add to the excitement of Kylie’s Australian tour (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I saw her last Friday), we get a three-disc tour edition of Aphrodite, an album that I wasn’t so sure about last year but have grown to love over time. After the underwhelming tour edition we got for X, everything about this package is bigger and better – the remixes are much more exciting, the packaging is nicer and we even get a megamix disc. A megamix disc!

Of course the album itself is still the main draw, and it ranges from obviously huge pop moments like ‘All The Lovers’ and ‘Get Outta My Way’ to songs that take a while to click like ‘Better Than Today’, to songs that only came alive for me during the tour, like ‘Cupid Boy’, which I can’t believe I dismissed when I first heard the album. Song for song it may not match up but overall, as an album, it is a much better listening experience than previous record X.

The mixes for Aphrodite have been outstanding and a lot of the best ones are included on the first bonus disc. The retro Pete Hammond mix of ‘Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)’ is a highlight, as is the WAWA & MMB mix of ‘All The Lovers’ and the Bimbo Jones ‘Better Than Today’. I would have switched the ‘Cupid Boy’ Stereogamous Vocal Mix for the dub that is included and I’d have also included the SDP or 7th Heaven mixes of ‘Get Outta My Way’ – but this is nitpicking. (More nitpicking, though – is my copy missing a booklet?)

The megamix is a lot of fun though for some reason I was under the impression it would include some older Kylie tracks. Instead it stands as a summation of the previous disc full of remixes, and Denzal Park has done a great job of capturing and enhancing the “up” atmosphere that has surrounded the whole Aphrodite campaign. Clearly with this and the upcoming super deluxe Goddess edition, it has dawned on Team Kylie that in order to stay at the top of their game, more creative methods for selling her music need to be put into place. Kylie has some of the most loyal fans in pop and it’s nice that there isn’t a “they’ll buy anything” attitude – packages like the Aphrodite tour edition give the diehards something really excellent and worthwhile to spend their money on.

I Didn’t Feel The Danger, Now I Feel The Heat: George Michael’s Faith, Remastered And Revisited

The boldness of Faith cannot be overstated, yet in the wake of everything we know about what came next, it seems tame and almost slight when compared to other George Michael albums. I remember that Faith was the third George Michael studio album that I owned, after first buying Patience, then the hits collection 25, then Listen Without Prejudice. I was slightly underwhelmed by it, especially when I’d been so used to the sourfaced seriousness of the other two records. The songs here seemed too light and fluffy. The man who sang those slow-moving ballads on later albums was yelling “HAVE. SEX. WITH. ME. C-C-C-C-C’MON!!”, and it just didn’t feel as satisfying. When I completed my collection and fully explored the Wham! years, Faith took on new meaning, and I now see it for what it really is: a work of towering brilliance that all but a couple of men in pop history would have killed for.

As opposed to self-contained masterpieces like 1996′s Older, Faith works in the same way that Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best Of George Michael and 25 do. As hits collections, they are powerhouses, overwhelming the listener with amazing song after amazing song. Faith is just a greatest hits disguised as a single album. Straight out of the gate we have ‘Faith’, ‘Father Figure’, ‘I Want Your Sex’, ‘One More Try’ and ‘Hard Day’. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. We take a breather with the two brilliant but understated non-singles ‘Hand To Mouth’ and ‘Look At Your Hands’, and then we’re back to the hits. ‘Monkey’, ‘Kissing A Fool’, ‘A Last Request’. And none of these songs sound similar to each other. The joyous big beats and powerful chorus of ‘Monkey’ don’t sound like the growling predator on ‘I Want Your Sex’, and that harshness doesn’t correspond to the cautious horniness of ‘Faith’, or the knowing seduction going on in ‘Father Figure’. And yet, somehow, it all sounds like the same album, the one vision.

Remastered and expanded, Faith sounds and feels more amazing than ever before. Given a deluxe treatment that puts the original CD issue to shame, the 2CD/DVD edition is housed in a nice little box and includes an interesting booklet which puts the album into a historical context rather than dryly recounting achievements as so many boring reissue essays have done in the past, albeit without any information on where the B-sides and remixes on the second disc came from (perhaps this was done to disguise the fact that two of the B-sides are not from the Faith era at all, which was an odd decision indeed).

Those bonus tracks are the big draw for hardcore fans, and while the selection and the fact that there is only nine of them (to add insult to injury, the ‘Hard Day’ remix has been available in a slightly different form on regular editions of Faith for years, and two of the other bonuses are instrumentals, which are generally seen as a bit of a cop-out) mean that the tracklist is slightly disappointing, the quality of the recordings are still very high. The ‘Faith’ instrumental highlights just how stunningly simple that song is, and the deconstructions of ‘Hard Day’ and ‘Monkey’ are well worth repeated listens. The live tracks, both Stevie Wonder covers, are more vocal showcases than strong individual songs, and they do not stand up to George’s other Stevie covers, ‘They Won’t Go When I Go’ and ‘As’, both of which managed to outshine the originals.

All in all, this reissue reinforces that Faith is a classic, and will most likely remain the widely agreed upon highpoint of George Michael’s career. I personally think he did better work elsewhere, but that doesn’t detract from how amazing this album is, it just means that the others are really, really good. Almost every pop album by a male star since 1987 has wished and hoped so hard that they could be Faith, but nobody so far has achieved such an incredible union of quality music, worldwide commercial success, critical respect and complete cohesion with the visuals and music videos. Many major albums by male pop stars in the years since, from Dangerous to FutureSex/LoveSounds to Confessions, have tried to replicate it’s across-the-board success, the fusion of pop and R&B attempting to elevate the music (and in the case of the latter two, the artist) to iconic status, but none of them really came close, even if, as in the case of Dangerous, the album was actually better than Faith. But simply being better is not enough, and what we have presented to us in this deluxe reissue is a prime example of the planets aligning and everything coming together to turn a simple pop album into a touchstone of pop culture.