Bleach
About a Girl is the giveaway. Between the grinding guitars and Kurt Cobain's roughest singing, a small, beautifully shaped pop song suddenly appears. Bleach already contains both sides of Nirvana. They just haven't agreed on how much space each one should get.
The 1989 debut mostly favours weight. Blew moves with a low, dragging force, and its vocal melody gives the riff a shape beyond simple repetition. School gets more mileage from less material: a stubborn guitar figure, a handful of words and a singer pushing himself harder with every return. There is something funny about how completely it refuses to elaborate. The song makes its point through the pressure of the performance.
Cobain is an especially unsettling presence on Paper Cuts. His voice stretches away from the instruments rather than sitting comfortably inside them. Negative Creep goes for a more direct assault, with a hoarse delivery that keeps the repeated riff feeling hostile. Neither needs the smoother production of Nirvana's later records. Their rough surfaces are part of how they work.
Love Buzz provides a welcome change of movement. The Shocking Blue cover has a bass line with an actual spring in its step, and the guitar noise turns a catchy song into something much less tidy. About a Girl is even clearer: the tune holds up without a wall of sound doing the convincing. It is the strongest argument against treating this album as a collection of promising early sketches.
The weaker stretches arrive when the same thick guitar sound has to support less distinctive writing. Sifting has atmosphere but lacks the snap of School, and some of the later songs blur together. Still, Bleach has a character that cannot be reduced to what Nirvana did next. It is awkward, heavy and often very catchy, with enough sharp songs to make its unfinished edges interesting.
