Average Rating: 
Rating:  - a good summary of their career
It's easy to complain about the good songs that are NOT on this disc, but come on; anybody can make their own Nirvana compilation, on tape or otherwise. If you want all of Nirvana's good songs, then buy all their CDs - it's that simple. The goal behind this album was to make a good summary of thier short career, and I think that is accomplished.The album begins with "You Know You're Right", Nirvana's much-hyped final recording. It's a great song, and it's amazing how something that's nearly 10 years old puts all the new [stuff] on the radio to shame. Next is "About A Girl", the only song from "Bleach" that I really liked (that's not to say I didn't like the rest - I just didn't like it as much as the later material). Then we have "Been A Son" and "Sliver", two songs that I didn't really like before I got this CD but fell in love with upon repeated listenings (this version of "Been A Son" is much better than the version featured on "Incesticide", by the way - not as rushed). Next, there's four songs from "Nevermind" ("Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Come As You Are", and "Lithium"), and then four from "In Utero" ("Heart-Shaped Box", "Pennyroyal Tea", "Rape Me", and "Dumb"). This version of "Pennyroyal Tea" is much more polished I think, and it actually rivals the "Unplugged" version. Finally, the last two songs are lifted from the "Unplugged" performance ("All Apologies", "The Man Who Sold The World"). All in all, it's a great summary of their career. Yeah, I wish there were a few more songs, like "Aneurysm" and "Verse Chorus Verse", but I can't complain too much. It's Nirvana; how can it NOT be good??? :) I can't wait till they release the box set........
Rating: - Frustratingly incomplete
This new Nirvana CD, appropriately titled "Nirvana", comes almost six years to the day that the last official Nirvana release, From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah, was released. While the songs on it are of good selection (the digitally remastered sound makes them sound much more cleaner and fresher than the previously released versions, including the new song "You Know You're Right", which is considered the last recorded gem by the band), the CD is chronically too short. There's only about 50 minutes of music on the disc in total - and that gives you room for at least another half hour or so of additional music (CD's hold about 80 minutes of music), and one has to wonder why the song selection ended abruptly at 14 and is so short, when many "Best-of" compilations normally fill up the enitre disc and have (generally) as many as 20 or so tracks, which could have been done here easily.So, keeping all this in mind, overall, I'd probably reccommend this, if you want a good but frustratingly brief overview of Nirvana's short but sweet career. As an introduction, it does its job well enough to keep a new fan hungry for more, which is what the disc is designed for in the first place. While hardcore fans may quibble over the track selections (most Nirvana fans seem to agree that the MTV Unplugged version of "About A Girl" is definetly superior to the Bleach version, and others wonder why "Been A Son" was included on this compilation), I think that we all can agree that Nirvana was a great band, and you really couldn't go wrong with any selections to put on here. There should be a little something here to satisfy everyone.
Rating: - What could have been and never was ....
It was more than 10 years ago that Smells Like Teen spirit came out from nowhere and rocked the whole world unlike any other song had done before. All these years after, the abscence of Kurt and Nirvana is still very much strongly felt. Currently only few bands have the passion that Nirvana felt, and surely no band has recorded any album that was as ground breaking as Nevermind.About this CD? To be honest I was a little bit dissapointed with this CD. Mind you, 'You know you're right' is brilliant and all the tracks on the album were masterfully remastered ... but, I expected a double album with much, much more songs that were previously unreleased, something that would re-awaken that passion in the music world that has died with Kurt in 1994. Obviously the only selfish person to blame for this is Courtney Love. Listening to wath Dave Grohl is currently doing on his own and with the Foo's makes me wonder what he and Kurt, who died at only 27 years of age, might have done together. God only knows how many more good songs and albums Nirvana could have given us. The only thing we're left with is, some brilliant work, not too much in quantity, but that was enough to change the history of rock music. If don't own any Nirvana record, go out, and buy this one right now for some pure total NIRVANA.
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