Incesticide

by

Nirvana

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Incesticide was released to capitalize on the mammoth success of Nevermind. The album collects early singles, b-sides and outtakes. The album was most people's introduction to the fact that the band had released music prior to Nevermind. The album's first two songs, "Dive" & "Sliver", made up the band's first single. They are both short, but extremely powerful. The album contains some incredible work in addition to "Dive" and "sliver", most notably "Aneurysm". The song is a furious workout with squealing guitars , feedback, power drumming and amid all the noise, an incredible catchy melody. Other strong cuts include "Molly's Lips", "Beeswax", "Stain" "Hairspray Queen" and "Been A Son". There are some forgettable numbers like "Mexican Seafood" and "Aero Zeppelin", but overall, Incesticide is better than your average compilation.

Incesticide is a simple album. There is nothing too complicated about it. Kurt Cobain is a great songwriter but this album does not show off his songwriting brilliance. Rather, it shows off his influence. Each song is a elemental sample of Kurt's styles of songwriting. You get his power pop sound from "Son of a Gun", old-school punk sound from "Turnaround", his brooding sound in "Big Long Now", and his hard rocking sound in "Aneurysm". This album provides an overview of what kind of music Kurt liked. What makes Nirvana so amazing is how they combined all these styles into their other albums, especially "In Utero". In his other albums, Kurt took each of these aforementioned styles and created new sounds and styles that could only be attributed to Nirvana. So should you buy Incesticide? Sure. It is not the best Nirvana album but it gives you a good overview of where Kurt was coming from with his songwriting in all of his other albums.