aaamusic | On 29, Aug 2011

Being a huge Nirvana fan, I was thrilled at taking an early listen to Little Roy’s Battle For Seattle and hearing a modern reggae twist on the grunge greats work, especially with the anniversary of Nevermind rolling around later this year.  Although I must admit to never liking any cover of Nirvana’s work, reggae had always sounded much better than covers from the likes of Machinehead & Weezer who despite their best efforts truly butcher the work of Kurt, Dave & Krist.

For the ten track LP, Little Roy has chosen some of Nirvana’s greatest and most popular hits.  With the exclusion of Smells Like Teen Spirit, Roy has taken huge numbers like Lithium & Come as You Are and bravely attempted to replace the dark and occasionally twisted lyrics and give them a fresh overcoat of upbeat reggae noise.  The problem is that despite his efforts, the tracks lack a little edge and diversity.

For instance, Lithium sounds like a fairly decent cover, the reggae sound works well with the verses and the lyrics don’t sound too out of place.  However when the chorus rolls around, you are left wondering what has replaced the maniacal howl of Kurt Cobain and his effective yet simplistic guitar solos.  The answer is nothing, and with Little Roy sticking perhaps a little close to the reggae genre he has boxed himself into a corner and cannot offer any twists or tempo changes in his tracks.

Other songs don’t fare that much better either, Heart Shaped Box just sounds too placid and like it has been thrown together in a heartbeat.  Come as You Are fares slightly better with a strong introduction and the inclusion of an organ, however the trumpets simply don’t work and it ends up being another decent, yet lifeless cover.  As disappointing as they were, the worst track on the album needs to be reserved for the notoriously chaotic and fast paced Sliver, which is too slow, too boring and too crap this time around.  Little Roy badly needed to inject some pace into his Nirvana project and this was an obvious opportunity, however Roy shunned offering anything different and has created a track that will well and truly piss off Nirvana’s dedicated fan base.  Son of a Gun is a close second too, lacking any sort of innovation and should’ve been destroyed by any worthy producer upon first hearing the track.

Despite too many tracks being a little repetitive and lacking passion, the lesser known songs sound much better largely because the original isn’t already drilled into your head.  Polly is worthy cover, adding some guitar and slightly faster-paced drumming into the mix and sounding like a nice little remake of the Nevermind track.  Elements of On a Plain also work too, with the bongos and Little Roy’s voice working well in unison.  It’s a real shame Roy didn’t try more of these tracks with varied drumming, as On a Plain’s selling point is the little drum fills which is something Dave Grohl himself would probably give a nod of approval to.

Although I appreciate it is hard to reinvent Nirvana, Unplugged in 1994 showed how it can be done when Nirvana ditched their dirty grunge tag for a haunting, almost eerie sound to mass critical acclaim.  This is still now my favourite album, so changing the pace of Nirvana without killing their creativity is a doable task yet Little Roy has fallen way short.  Battle for Seattle ultimately ends up as a dull and listless release, with less effort going into this than Arsenal’s weekend performance against Man Utd.  It might appeal to some reggae fans, but the Nirvana faithful won’t have any interest in Battle for Seattle.  Anyone who wants Nirvana at a slower pace, check MTV Unplugged 1994.  Everyone else just pick up Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero and reminisce about Seattle’s finest.

 

Author: Tom Crowther