Nirvana - Sliver (Black 7" Vinyl) (Vinyl LP)

Nirvana - Sliver (Black 7” Vinyl)

Highly limited edition reissue of Sub Pop single in full-colour picture sleeve, backed with "Dive".

“Sliver” might be a single rather than an album, but it tells you more about Nirvana’s centre of gravity than most bands manage across a whole discography. Cut in 1990 for Sub Pop, it sits right between the grit of Bleach and the sugar-rush clarity that would define Nevermind. It’s the moment Kurt Cobain proves he can write an earworm without sanding off the splinters, a pop song about childhood panic that still smells like a basement rehearsal room.

The single’s B-side, “Dive,” hints at the future too. Tracked earlier in 1990 with Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Wisconsin, and featuring Chad Channing on drums, it’s heavier and more sinuous, the bassline slinking around the riff while Cobain roars from the throat rather than the nose. It later turned up on Incesticide, as did “Sliver,” and you can hear why fans latched onto both. One shows Nirvana’s pop instinct, the other their ability to make sludge feel aerodynamic. That tug of war is the band in a nutshell.

Tracklisting:

1. Sliver
2. Dive