Thursday, October 17, 2002

I'm sure many of you by now have heard the "new" Nirvana song, "You Know You're Right." Accompanying such a momentous event has been a lot of unnecessary analysis, trying to place it within the context of the rest of Nirvana's body of work. One article I read even quoted somebody as saying it was one of their ten best songs. As it turns out, that little bit of information has taken on the weight of fact with some people, as a forum I post in regularly has had a few members post similar sentiments. Now, I'm all for difference of opinion, but having heard the song myself, I have to say: are you fucking kidding me? Let me state right away that I think it's a good song--a very good song. But top ten? Have you people even heard anything else by Nirvana? My first impression of the song was that it was just okay, that it sounded too close to Bush doing their best Nirvana impersonation. But I kept listening to it, and eventually, was hooked. It's got a great hook leading into the one word chorus ("pain" stretched out into many syllables; not Kurt's finest writing) and, in the end, definitely worthy of being in the Nirvana canon. Top ten? Not even. Here are 10 songs off the top of my head that are better:

1. About A Girl
2. Aneurysm
3. Blew
4. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
5. Heart Shaped Box
6. Lithium
7. Milk It
8. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
9. School
10. Smells Like Teen Spirit