The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Nirvana

[#] From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (1996)

Quite the accurate depiction of Nirvana in the flesh, for better or worse.

Reviewed October 6, 2020

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read my first impressions, or read on for how they might have changed.)

With the suicide (ahem) of Kurt Cobain in 1994, the world lost one hell of a live act. When you have one of the most melodic screamers in all of rock on stage with one of the hardest hitting drummers in all of rock, you get a group worth seeing, and seeing as there'd be no more Nirvana without Kurt, his camp sought out to produce an album that captured the magic of their stage shows for hungry fans. Before this, Nirvana had appeared on a decent few transcription discs for radio stations, but the abandoned Verse Chorus Verse notwithstanding, From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah was the first attempt in a now very long line of attempts to sell the live Nirvana experience to the public, and it's alright! It should've been better, and you've got better options now, but this isn't too shabby.

Wishkah leans on a handful of shows, crossfading between songs to give the illusion of them being from the same set, though inexplicably with all the stage banter excised. The 1991 Holland and Del Mar shows take up about half of the disc, and that was a good call, because these rip. Hearing the Del Mar version of "Teen Spirit" makes you actually like that song again! Even better is how heavily the "setlist" leans on damn fine deep cuts and non-album tracks like "Been a Son" and "Aneurysm". I question some of the chosen shows, though—given all the material DGC must've had to work with, "Sliver", "Breed", "Scentless Apprentice" and "Negative Creep" could've and should've had much less messy, atonal renditions featured. Wishkah is good for waking you up, but I'd say seek out Live at the Paramount instead if you're just getting into live Nirvana.

Essential:	"Drain You", "Aneurysm", "Lithium"
Quintessential:	"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
Non-Essential:	"Sliver"
Rating:
Further listening:	From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah's Rediscovering entry