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Nirvana with the lights out5/27/2023 Mojo (Publisher) (p.120) - 3 stars out of 5 - "ascinating is a career-spanning selection of radio broadcasts beginning with an April '87 appearance.LIGHTS offers multiple perspectives on well-known material. Uncut (p.134) - 4 stars out of 5 - "A hardcore fan's wildest dreams fulfilled.It's consistently strong." that show the band experimenting in ways they never did on their album releases." - Grade: AĮntertainment Weekly (p.89) - " volcanic eruption of Nirvana material.Cobain's early songs burn with thrash-metal energy, bratty humor, and, most of all, ambition." - Grade: A-Įntertainment Weekly (p.184) - 4 stars out of 5 - "he prizes are the full-fledged Nirvana songs that got away.You can't top the naked demo of 'Heart Shaped Box,' which has doomier lyrics and a bent noise-guitar solo." Rolling Stone (p.154) - Included in Rolling Stone's The 10 Best Reissues & Anthologies Of 2004 - "Remember him this way: exploding with invention, fighting the pain and winning." ![]() Covering the post-NEVERMIND years, Disc Three features acoustic readings of IN UTERO tunes, along with rarities like the stomping (and rather prophetic) "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die" and the emotive "Sappy." The beautiful booklet and the DVD of archival footage serve to further illuminate Nirvana's legacy, which extends far beyond this well-compiled set. In addition to Cobain's solo acoustic tracks and demo versions of well-known songs, excellent B-sides and compilation tracks are presented here, including a gorgeous reading of the Velvet Underground's "Here She Comes Now" and a fierce take on Greg Sage's "D-7" that rivals the most intense Nirvana studio tracks. ![]() Disc Two covers the band's uneasy transition to superstar status and features the crucial addition of drummer Dave Grohl, whose powerhouse percussion worked perfectly with Krist Novoselic's rumbling bass and Cobain's tortured vocals and fiery guitar playing.Distortion and low fidelity reign on most of these songs (including "Anorexorcist", "Pen Cap Chew," and a demo version of "Even in His Youth"), and Cobain probably wouldn't have had it any other way. Part of Nirvana's charm was its gleefully subversive aesthetic, and this trait is heavily featured on Disc One, which begins with a slaughtered version of Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" at the group's first gig in 1987. Ten years after the death of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana fans finally got what they had been waiting for in the form of 2004's WITH THE LIGHTS OUT, an extensive three-CD/one-DVD box set spanning the deified rock band's career.Nirvana (US): Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar) Dave Grohl (vocals, drums) Krist Novoselic (bass guitar).DVD features never-before-seen footage of the band home movies from their beginnings in Aberdeen all the way to secret recording sessions in Rio. "With The Lights Out" includes a DVD as well as a large booklet with pictures and liner notes. WITH THE LIGHTS OUT features 3 CDs that include studio outtakes, rare, early recordings, Kurts home demos and many more.Includes bonus DVD disc and 60-page booklet.But as this is not sold without the CD:s I doubted whether I should rate this as the 10 the box deserves or as the 6 the DVD alone deserves? Bottom line: Buy the Box, the CD:s is more listenable although every track (including everyone on the DVD) is important. If this was a "greatest hits of live videos" I would have rated it higher, but It would have lower the rate of the box in total as its not made to show the best: rather to show the important. The whole point of the box was to include tracks that not even the bootleggers owned and although the majority haven't seen the great video recordings of shows in Texas, Holland, Roma and Reading, the bootleggers have. The last two can not be found on any bootleg videos and the Sappy recording on this DVD is the best version I have seen. The tracks I will return to on the DVD are Sappy (my favorite Nirvana track), Talk to me and Seasons in the sun. The 1991 recordings are also historically important, but nearly impossible to listen to due to the bad sound. The rehearsals in 1988 sounds fun, and are fun the first time you watch it. Nearly every track on the DVD can be found in alternate versions from other dates on other recordings: often with better sound and picture quality. The CD:s have SOME tunes that are on them just because they are historically interesting: the DVD is packed with them. I doubt the DVD will find it's way back in the DVD-player, at least not for a while. The footage shown on the DVD is good in that sense thats its fun to have seen it. I rated this DVD as a 6, but the whole Box would get a 10.
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