The ghost of Christmas?

What is surprising - especially given the fact that the number of posthumous Nirvana releases now outstrips the records they made whilst together - is that the legendary 1993 MTV Unplugged Set sees its first DVD or VHS release 14 years after the event. Regarded by many as the highpoint of Nirvana’s career, and in many ways, a mere taster of where Nirvana were going to go next on their inevitable journey into being older statesmen of rock, it now stands as the only existant recording of the way Nirvana could have been but ultimately never were. Whilst I, personally, would rather they have released a full concert from each one of their respective eras, “MTV Unplugged” is a fitting testimony to the group. Firstly, the music sees the band at their absolute defining moment of artistry - where the heavy guitars and the screaming that was seen as typifying them (and pigeonholding them as onedimensional) were profoundly shoved aside in favour of revealing the very nature of the band underneath the bombast and the sound. Cobain has never seemed so aware, so alive - despite this being just four short months before his demise. In some ways, you could almost predict that he knew that this was a watershed moment for Nirvana, where they stepped out of their cliché and started to be respected for what they knew they were all along.

Music : fourteen acoustic performances by the group covering their entire career. Thankfully, the well worn hits such as “Teen Spirit” and “Lithium” are nowhere to be seen, in favour of LP tracks and obscure covers (being recorded for the only time in Nirvana’s career). This allows the viewer to see an alternate perspective to the group - that of artists instead of what they were seen as at the time ; fixture of the rock pantheon, the tortured soundtrack to the Pre-Emo masses and the poster boy for neurosis. Cobains death retrospectively gave the group a gravitas that the trends of the time were too shallow to see but was always right under their noses. The performance is superlative in content and style and should you only ever own one Nirvana record then “Unplugged” is the one to choose. The extras - five rehearsal songs and a scant MTV interview feature with people who were there (and not the band, despite what the package tells you) - are short and unexceptional but of some interest. Overall, it’s a good package - but not amazing by any standard - and if you own the CD, it should come fairly low on your list of priorities. If you don’t have the CD go straight to this DVD instead.

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