Product Description

'Unplugged In New York' is a live album of acoustic tracks from one of the 90's biggest bands. Recorded live for MTV shortly before Kurt Cobain's death, these pared down reworkings of their most popular tracks lose none of their potency when played acoustically, bringing a new dimension to already well known tracks. Features a cover of David Bowie's 'The Man That Sold The World'.

Track Listing

1. About A Girl
2. Come As You Are
3. Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam
4. The Man Who Sold The World
5. Pennyroyal Tea
6. Dumb
7. Polly
8. On A Plain
9. Something In The Way
10. Plateau
11. Oh Me
12. Lake Of Fire
13. All Apologies
14. Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #701 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Running time: 54 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Unplugged was the last collection recorded by Nirvana before the untimely death of Kurt Cobain and it caught many by surprise. As a testament to the group's live dynamic in a acoustic setting, it's a fantastic document that emphasises the nuances of one of the greatest bands of recent times. Cobain singing "I swear I don't have a gun, I don't have a gun" with clenched teeth instead of a loud howl is a revelation as is the subtle guitar playing on the haunting "About a Girl", from their earliest LP. Highlights include covers of three Meat Puppets tracks (featuring special guests Curt and Kris Kirkwood of that influential "college rock" band), the weepy cello on the Vaselines' "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" and their cover of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World". --Lorry Fleming

Customer Reviews

Up There With Greatest Live Album Ever
This album was a revelation when I first heard it a couple of years after Cobain's death. For the most part I hadn't connected with Nirvana's grungier sound. The Unplugged format provides a sparse and paired back sound, releasing the raw power and passion of Cobain's voice. Favorite's are Something In the Way, Dumb, On a Plain and most especially the cover of the Meat Puppets Plateau. As others have mentioned the closing cover of Leadbelly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night is remarkable in its intensity.

Unlike many other live albums the post production has left all the chat and banter between Cobain and the band in the mix; this allows the listener to feel part of a very special concert. In conclusion you don't have to be a big fan of Nirvana's louder, grungier recordings to appreciate this live recording. In terms of importance; up there with Bob Dylan Live at the Albert Hall and Johnny Cash Live at San Quentin.

Elegiac
Like albums such as the Manic Street Preacher's "The Holy Bible" and Joy Division's "Closer", this album is impossible to hear without the ghost of a creator looming large - unlike albums by The Doors or Jimi Hendrix, which lack the seeming suicide-note nature of those works. "Unplugged" more than any other album I know has an elegiac, funeral atmosphere, one heightened by the inclusion of lilies and candles in the small stage and the nervousness of band and audience, as though aware that what they were seeing was so fragile it might break. (Compare the atmosphere with that of Rod Stewart's Unplugged, which is like a knees-up gig in a cosy pub by the resident band).

There is, for the first time with Nirvana, a remarkable delicacy. While some of their songs had been suggestive of fragility (such as Lithium, Milk It and Pennyroyal Tea), the power of the music had always given this an adrenalizing kick that undercut the frankness of the lyrics. Here these fragilities and delicacies are all out in the open, tender and exposed. It's utterly haunting and emotionally engaging.

"About A Girl" sets the tone - after a snide opening comment from Kurt ("most people don't know it" - as though nobody bothered to investigate Nirvana's earlier stuff!), some beautifully singing accoustic chords starts the songs, and compared to the leaden "Bleach" version, here the melodies and joyfulnes are all out in the open. The harmonies from Dave Grohl are fantastic, too. It rescues the song as the great pop song it is - somehow it reminds me of The Beatles' "Two Of Us" with its own great harmonising and accoustic guitar.

"Come As You Are" on the other hand brings out the brillian melody and the anti-phallic nature of it. Given rock music's association with masculinity (and thus guns and penises), it's a brilliant reversal to hear Kurt sing "Man I swear no I don't have a gun / No I don't have a gun," though the irony is bitter. "Dumb" and "Pennyroyal Tea" similarly bring out the implicit pleading fragility obscured by the distorted growl of Kurt's electric guitar.

"The Man Who Sold The World" on the other hand is a brilliant reimagining of the David Bowie song. The hook is brilliantly captured by Kris Novoselic and the solo by Kurt (played electrically) is better than the original - as is the song as a whole!

"On A Plain" and "Polly" are not great, but unlike some others I think that the Meatpuppet covers are fantastic. "Lake Of Fire" has a brooding, alt-country atmosphere that's wonderfullt evocative, "Oh Me" is achingly sad, and superbly harmonised, and the wonderful "Plateau" just unwinds on and on, a brilliant song.

"All Apologies", the cathartic, send-off follows. Again it's far more delicate than the "In Utero" version and perhaps the better for it - it always irritated me how Kurt rasped the first syllable of some of the words in the studio version.

The last song is the spine-chilling "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", a primal blues song, by Leadbelly. It's heavy and portentous, and the dynamics are handled beautifully, from a whisper to a climbing cry to a full-on scream of "SHIIIVVVEEEEERR!!" It's incredibly passionate, nakedly emotional, and so moving it's frightening.

In some ways this is Nirvana's finest album. It is more complex emotionally than "Nevermind", more consistent than "In Utero" and far richer than "Bleach". It's a fitting epitaph not only for Kurt Cobain but Nirvana too.

Outstanding
I was a fan of Nirvana before I heard 'Unplugged' but this album just proved to me how great a band they were. Stripped of the feedback and the frenetic punk energy the songs still stand up as classics.

'About a Girl' is total post-punk Beatles; 'Come as You Are' is better acoustically than released on 'Nevermind'; 'The Man Who Sold the World' is better than the Bowie original. 'Pennyroyal Tea' has some of the best lyrics Cobain ever wrote - "I'm on warm milk and laxatives; cherry flavoured ant-acids", "I have very bad posture". Pure generation x angst.

The cello on 'On a Plain' and 'Something in the Way' is hauntingly beautiful. 'All Apologies' is precisely performed and sounds like it was written for an intimate acoustic set. There are a lot of covers here and I must admit I do wish there were more Nirvana originals. 'Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam' isn't as good a song as some of their own they could have included. And the Meat Puppets tracks are pretty good, but they could have dropped one or two of them for an acoustic 'Lithium' or 'Serve the Servants' which would have been more interesting.

Overall though, this is an awesome record. Nirvana had some detractors based on ridiculous arguments that other bands had done the American indie thing before them, or that they were too popular for an authentic underground band. But this album proves that they were much much more than media favourites. They were the real deal. Live and exposed they more than prove their talent and their place amongst the best two or three bands ever.