Komet - 1999 - 20' to 2000

		1			Bretschneider	5:06
		2			Bretschneider	4:32
		3			Bretschneider	3:48
		4			Bretschneider	4:51

¡Aquí!

Nirvana - 1991 - Nevermind

Nevermind was never meant to change the world, but you can never predict when the zeitgeist will hit, and Nirvana's second album turned out to be the place where alternative rock crashed into the mainstream. This wasn't entirely an accident, either, since Nirvana did sign with a major label, and they did release a record with a shiny surface, no matter how humongous the guitars sounded. And, yes, Nevermind is probably a little shinier than it should be, positively glistening with echo and fuzzbox distortion, especially when compared with the black-and-white murk of Bleach. This doesn't discount the record, since it's not only much harder than any mainstream rock of 1991, its character isn't on the surface, it's in the exhilaratingly raw music and haunting songs. Kurt Cobain's personal problems and subsequent suicide naturally deepen the dark undercurrents, but no matter how much anguish there is on Nevermind, it's bracing because he exorcises those demons through his evocative wordplay and mangled screams — and because the band has a tremendous, unbridled power that transcends the pain, turning into pure catharsis. And that's as key to the record's success as Cobain's songwriting, since Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl help turn this into music that is gripping, powerful, and even fun (and, really, there's no other way to characterize "Territorial Pissings" or the surging "Breed"). In retrospect, Nevermind may seem a little too unassuming for its mythic status — it's simply a great modern punk record — but even though it may no longer seem life-changing, it is certainly life-affirming, which may just be better.

		1		Smells Like Teen Spirit	Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic	5:02
		2		In Bloom	Cobain, Nirvana	4:15
		3		Come as You Are	Cobain	3:39
		4		Breed	Cobain, Nirvana	3:04
		5		Lithium	Cobain	4:17
		6		Polly	Cobain, Nirvana	2:56
		7		Territorial Pissings	Cobain, Nirvana	2:23
		8		Drain You	Cobain, Nirvana	3:44
		9		Lounge Act	Cobain, Nirvana	2:37
		10		Stay Away	Cobain, Nirvana	3:33
		11		On a Plain	Cobain, Nirvana	3:17
		12		Something in the Way	Cobain, Nirvana	3:51

¡Aquí!

Pretty Things - 1968 - S.F. Sorrow

Who could ever have thought, going back to the Pretty Things' first recording session in 1965 -- which started out so disastrously that their original producer quit in frustration -- that it would come to this? The Pretty Things' early history in the studio featured the band with its amps seemingly turned up to 11, but for much of S.F. Sorrow the band is turned down to seven or four, or even two, or not amplified at all (except for Wally Allen's bass -- natch), and they're doing all kinds of folkish things here that are still bluesy enough so you never forget who they are, amid weird little digressions on percussion and chorus; harmony vocals that are spooky, trippy, strange, and delightful; sitars included in the array of stringed instruments; and an organ trying hard to sound like a Mellotron. Sometimes one gets an echo of Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn or A Saucerful of Secrets, and it all straddles the worlds of British blues and British psychedelia better than almost any record you can name. The album, for those unfamiliar, tells the story of "S.F. Sorrow," a sort of British Everyman -- think of a working-class, luckless equivalent to the Kinks' Arthur, from cradle to grave. The tale and the songs are a bit downbeat and no amount of scrutiny can disguise the fact that the rock opera S.F. Sorrow is ultimately a bit of a confusing effort -- these boys were musicians, not authors or dramatists. Although it may have helped inspire Tommy, it is, simply, not nearly as good. That said, it was first and has quite a few nifty ideas and production touches. And it does show a pathway between blues and psychedelia that the Rolling Stones, somewhere between Satanic Majesties, "We Love You," "Child of the Moon," and Beggars Banquet, missed entirely. [This CD reissue on Snapper adds four valuable songs from their 1967-1968 singles ("Defecting Grey," "Mr. Evasion," "Talkin' About the Good Times," and "Walking Through My Dreams"). This version of "Defecting Grey" is the original, long, uncut five-minute rendition, and not of trivial importance; it's superior to the shorter one used on the official single.]

		1		S.F. Sorrow Is Born	May, Taylor, Waller	3:12
		2		Bracelets of Fingers	May, Taylor, Waller	3:41
		3		She Says Good Morning	Alder, May, Taylor, Waller	3:23
		4		Private Sorrow	May, Povey, Taylor, Waller	3:51
		5		Balloon Burning	May, Povey, Taylor, Waller	3:51
		6		Death	Alder, May, Povey, Taylor ...	3:05
Composed by: Alder, May, Povey, Taylor, Waller
		7		Baron Saturday	May, Taylor, Waller	4:01
		8		The Journey	Alder, May, Taylor, Waller	2:46
		9		I See You	May, Taylor, Waller	3:56
		10		Well of Destiny	Alder, May, Povey, Smith, Taylor ...	1:46
Composed by: Alder, May, Povey, Smith, Taylor, Waller
		11		Trust	May, Taylor, Waller	2:49
		12		Old Man Going	Alder, May, Povey, Taylor ...	3:09
Composed by: Alder, May, Povey, Taylor, Waller
		13		Loneliest Person	Alder, May, Taylor, Waller	1:29
		14		Defecting Grey [*]	May, Taylor, Waller	4:30
		15		Mr. Evasion [*]	May, Taylor, Waller	3:31
		16		Talkin' About the Good Times [*]	May, Taylor, Waller	3:45
		17		Walking Through My Dreams [*]	May, Povey, Taylor, Waller	3:46

¡Aquí!