Only for the Nirvana completest

The only place that you can find an official release of the excellent Nirvana track 'Verse Chorus Verse'. From memory the song had been hanging around since the 'Bleach' days (1980s) yet, because Kurt was never satisfied with the way the song turned out during recording sessions, it never made it on any of the albums. The version included here is taken from the 'In Utero' sessions and easily better than many of the songs that wound up on that album, Cobain's opinion notwithstanding.

Another note of trivia for those interested; often it has been said that the Nirvana track was 'hidden' because the band provided the song after all the booklets etc had been printed. But if you actually read the booklet, it refers to 19 tracks rather than 18, suggesting the the person who wrote the inlay was aware of 19 tracks before printing, and perhaps that the Nirvana track was hidden intentionally. WHo knows?

In closing, the Nirvana completest will be satisfied, but apart from the Mathew Sweet opener and the live Beastie Boys track, most of the other songs are just throwaways you'll never listen to again.

only necessary for the Nirvana completest

The only place that you can find an official release of the excellent Nirvana track 'Verse Chorus Verse'. From memory the song had been hanging around since the 'Bleach' days (1980s) yet, because Kurt was never satisfied with the way the song turned out during recording sessions, it never made it on any of the albums. The version included here is taken from the 'In Utero' sessions and easily better than many of the songs that wound up on that album, Cobain's opinion notwithstanding.

Another note of trivia for those interested; often it has been said that the Nirvana track was 'hidden' because the band provided the song after all the booklets etc had been printed. But if you actually read the booklet, it refers to 19 tracks rather than 18, suggesting the the person who wrote the inlay was aware of 19 tracks before printing, and perhaps that the Nirvana track was hidden intentionally. WHo knows?

In closing, the Nirvana completest will be satisfied, but apart from the Mathew Sweet opener and the live Beastie Boys track, most of the other songs are just throwaways you'll never listen to again.

The kind of CD that never leaves you

No Alternative is one of those CDs that you listen to on your way to work for a month straight, finally tire of, forget for a few years, and then remember all over again, listening to it on your way to work for a month straight. The beauty of compilations and soundtracks is that, when they're done right, they're diverse enough to keep your interest far longer than an album by a single artist ever could.



Yet, what makes No Alternative excel as a compilation is the fact that it does manage to maintain some commonality amongst the diversity; enough to keep things fresh and interesting with each successive track, but all while weaving them together with an emotional thread. Urge Overkill's "Take a Walk" and American Music Club's "All Your Jeans Were Too Tight" sound nothing alike, yet somewhere, in the deep emotional core of these songs, there's some commonality. Virtually every song on this album somehow deals with loss at its center. Some are uplifting, some despairing, some jaded, and some treat it with black humor. No two can be confused for one another; no two feel like they're consciously working for this effect. Yet, on a tribute album for an AIDS foundation, each of these songs seem to have taken the underlying cause to heart in a way that makes song transitions often seamless, even when the tone, beat, and volume change abruptly. The one exception to this is Nirvana's hidden track at the end, which (while worthy of inclusion on a Nirvana's Greatest Hits album) seems to have been contributed arbitrarily.



To provide some background (I guess I should have done this first), No Alternative was compiled in 1993, at the height of the Alternative/Independent movement. As the liner notes explain, the duel purpose of the album was to raise money for AIDS research ("there's no alternative") and to dispel the myth that Alternative could be considered a single style of music with distinguishable characteristics ("there's no such thing as Alternative"). This second notion accurately reflects the variety of talent signed on for this album.



No Alternative incorperates the works of nineteen independent artists, most still on the fringe of public awareness at the time of its release. Perhaps this was a gamble by its producers to inexpensively sign artists that had a chance of making it big right before the album hit stores. However, it's more likely that this was simply an attempt to catch a glimpse at the "true" alternative, occuring right outside the music mainstream, in all its diversity. Smashing Pumpkins, Soul Asylum, and The Breeders were already Alternative brand names by the time of NA's release, Sarah McLachlan and Soundgarden's mainstream breakthroughs were still a few years away, and Urge Overkill and Matthew Sweet continued to remain on the fringe of public awareness, even while attracting large fan bases. Patti Smith and The Beastie Boys aside, I've never heard of the rest of the artists that compile this album, and I don't suspect that I ever will.



There are no bad songs on this album, but the truly best and most memorable songs are the intensely introspective "Take a Walk" (Urge Overkill), the dream-weaving, soul affirming "Glynis" (Smashing Pumpkins), and the desperate lament of "Hold On" (tremendously different alternative version by Sarah McLachlan). Nirvana's hidden "Verse Chorus Verse" is among their best work but, as previously stated, does not match the tone of the album. Fans of Patti Smith will be haunted and touched by how her "Memorial Song" differs from anything they've heard from her previously, but non-fans will be likely to scoff at the song (as I once did).



You don't need to be a fan of Alternative to appreciate No Alternative. After all, there is no Alternative. All you need is an open ear, willing to engage and appreciate various distinctive styles. But even if you approach No Alternative without that open ear, some of these songs will open it for you. There's a passion on this album that simply cannot be missed. You may not immediately hear it in Soul Asylum's cover of "Sexual Healing", but, sooner or later, one of the tracks on this album is going to catch you and, if it treats you the way it treated me, it may never let you go.