Customer Reviews
Elegiac - By: Mike Cormack, 01 Oct 2007 
Like albums such as the Manic Street Preacher's "The Holy Bible" & 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 & candlesin the small stage & the nervousness of band & 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 gigin 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 & Pennyroyal Tea), the power of the music had always given this an adrenalizing kick that undercut the frankness of the lyrics. Here these fragilities & delicacies are all outin the open, tender & exposed. It's utterly haunting & 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, & compared to the leaden "Bleach" version, here the melodies & joyfulnes are all outin 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 & accoustic guitar.
"Come As You Are" on the other hand brings out the brillian melody & the anti-phallic nature of it. Given rock music's association with masculinity (and thus guns & 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" & "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 & the solo by Kurt (played electrically) is better than the original - as is the song as a whole!
"On A Plain" & "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, & superbly harmonised, & the wonderful "Plateau" just unwinds on & on, a brilliant song.
"All Apologies", the cathartic, send-off follows. Again it's far more delicate than the "In Utero" version & perhaps the better for it - it always irritated me how Kurt rasped the first syllable of some of the wordsin 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 & portentous, & 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, & 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" & far richer than "Bleach". It's a fitting epitaph not only for Kurt Cobain but Nirvana too.
Outstanding - By: Cuban Heel, 02 Sep 2007 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 & 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 & laxatives; cherry flavoured ant-acids", "I have very bad posture". Pure generation x angst.
The cello on 'On a Plain' & 'Somethingin the Way' is hauntingly beautiful. 'All Apologies' is precisely performed & sounds like it was written for an intimate acoustic set. There are a lot of covers here & 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 & exposed they more than prove their talent & their place amongst the best two or three bands ever.
Perhaps Nirvana's Best album...Maybe - By: James Petford, 06 Aug 2007 This album was recorded a short while before kurt cobain decided to end his life a few months afterwards.
It shows the bands (in my opinion) best talents as a band & Kurt's vocals really showin this fantastic live performance. Somethingin the way, lake of fire & plataeu are some of the best tracks here & are actually better than their studio counterparts, & the audincein the background makes the performance seem somehow even more epic. Strongly recommended Nirvana Album.
The greatest live performance ever! - By: crnf100, 25 Feb 2007 Nirvana unpluggedin new york is the greatest live performance of all time. It shows Kurt Cobain at his raw best. His amazing vocal talentin Lake of fire & Oh me & his great singer songwriter tecniquein All Apologies. Finished off by Where Did You Sleep Last Night a song which exposes Cobainin all of his emotion & vocal abilityin which leaves the crowd motionless & cheering for a great man & a great band including Dave Grohl the gretest drummer of all time. The album gives unique songsin a way which Nirvana's instruments combine to give an emotive & uplifting performance. This is an amazing mix of grunge & acoustic campfire singalong. You'll wish so much for a sequal. And wish even more for Cobain to still be with us.
I guarentee you i will screw this up - By: Sam, 23 Mar 2006 
But he didn't, did he. Infact he gave one of the best performances ever, yes, ever. I'm not using that term lightly like most people do.
The Man Who Sold The World is without doubt, the most incredible live acoustic performancein the history of everything thats anything.
Only 4 stars because they do some covers of the same band & the songs aren't great, they are improved by the performance though.
But this is unbelievably good.
