Nirvana – Live at Reading

Nirvana’s 1992 performance at England’s Reading Festival is impossible to separate from its historical significance, which is this: Nirvana was at the time ascending to biggest-band-in-the-world status, and their 90-minute, 25-song set at Reading officially put them there.

This was August ’92, a year after “Nevermind” reset the expectations and aesthetics of modern pop music. This was a headlining slot at Reading, one of the longest-running, traditionally career-making music festivals in the world. And this was Nirvana at its artistic peak. (Read the Full Review)

Nirvana – Bleach (Deluxe)

With its title derived from a poster advising heroin users to bleach their needles before use, it’s easy to look back at Nirvana’s debut album of 1989 – famously recorded for just $606 – and conclude that all the warning signs were there. Collapse was inevitable, disaster just over the horizon. But then you listen to the record and fall in love, again, with a collection of scrappy, scratchy songs that comprised the foundation for one of the best rock albums of all time.

That bona-fide classic is Nevermind, of course – Nirvana’s 1991 release elevated the trio of Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic (Chris at the time) and Dave Grohl to superstar status, aided in no small way by the runaway success of Smells Like Teen Spirit and the reach of MTV. But Bleach is an angrier, fidgety affair; it’s the sound of a hungry band putting all they’ve got into sessions they couldn’t afford to repeat. As such, compared to its successor it’s a rough-edged listen, and the actual songwriting on show is at a developing stage, a lack of sing-along choruses limiting its mainstream reach. But the promise that sweats out from the cracks between songs, between the fractured riffs and guttural screams of Paper Cuts, the frenetic flailing of Swap Meet and the affectingly understated ardour of About a Girl, is incredible. (Read the Full Review)

Say Anything – Say Anything

Say Anything’s fourth album is both trim and tuneful, with Max Bemis devoting more focus than ever to the tightening of his quirky, unchained pop songs. “Focus” is a relative term, of course; the frontman still finds time to run wild throughout this disc, rearranging conventional song structures like Picasso and sampling from multiple genres — emo, rock, punk-pop, R&B, even doo wop — with greedy glee. The choruses boast stronger hooks this time around, though, which lends heft to Say Anything’s musical mish-mash, and the band’s willingness to break rules is what makes this album so refreshing. (Full Review)

Slayer – World Painted Blood (Track reviews)

Unit 731 Only Slayer could pick a subject like Unit 731 – a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War that, frankly, leaving Josef Mengele looking like a rank amateur – and make it sound this good. Not to mention appropriately brutal. If the previous track caused a suspicion Slayer are slowing with age, then ‘Unit 731′ completely assuages those fears – full on, mega-fast thrash; no frills, no solos, just under three minutes of bloody-minded thrash-as-fuck metal.

Snuff Wah! The smoking pigs are back! No warning shots here – no brace of fire across the bow, just Jeff Hanneman shredding like it’s 1988 from the very first second. ‘Snuff’ quite literally rips your innards out or your asshole as… well, just it just does – it’s Slayer, they can do that. Less convoluted in subject matter than previous numbers, there is a barbaric beauty to the lyrics: “Torture, misery, endless suffering; pleasing to the eye”. The stand out number so far. (Read the Full Review)

Julian Casablanca – Phrazes for the Young

Phrazes for the Young offers treble-heavy Strokesish guitars over 80s synthpop; there are jittery drum machines and knowingly cheesy, triumphal-sounding synth riffs and vocals delivered in time-honoured I-am-an-alienated-robot staccato. The single 11th Dimension opens with a bassline influenced by early house that could have stepped straight off a late 80s Pet Shop Boys album. It’s a beguiling mix. (Read Full Review)