Nirvana With The Lights Out CD

This 4-cd set includes over 60 previously unreleased recordings from 1987-1994. Included are 3 CDS, 60 page full color booklet, Liner Notes By Thurston Moore Of Sonic Youth, Detailed Chronology & Many Rare Photos, AND 1 DVD of never-before-seen footage: band home movies from their beginnings all the way to secret recording sessions in Rio, and a lot of never-before-seen material from everything in between. Studio Outtakes, rare early recordings, , Kurt's home demos, more...

Includes bonus DVD disc and 60-page booklet.
"With The Lights Out" includes a DVD as well as a large booklet with pictures and liner notes.
Nirvana (US): Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar); Dave Grohl (vocals, drums); Krist Novoselic (bass guitar).
Liner Note Author: Thurston Moore.
Within a matter of months after Kurt Cobain's suicide in April of 1994, fans started asking for the official release of all the demos, stray songs, alternate takes, and rarities in Nirvana's vaults. Due to various legal disputes between the surviving bandmembers and the Cobain estate, this long-awaited set of unreleased material did not appear until late 2004, when the three-disc, one-DVD box With the Lights Out finally appeared. Not counting the 20-song DVD, the box contains 61 tracks, with nearly two-thirds of this material seeing its first official release on this set (the remaining songs are B-sides, one-off singles, and compilation contributions that didn't make it to the compilation Incesticide, or appeared after its 1992 release). Much of this unreleased material has circulated frequently on bootlegs over the past ten years -- most notably on the 1995 box set Into the Black and the multi-volume Outcesticide series -- but the fidelity here is much, much better, and there are several items here that have never been bootlegged, including early alternate versions of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Heart Shaped Box." Just as importantly, no major item that appeared on the bootlegs does not appear here (with the arguable exception of the Kiss cover "Do You Love Me"), which makes this the definitive collection of Nirvana studio rarities and outtakes. As the sessionography in the liner notes indicates, this hardly contains all of the unreleased material, but it certainly contains all of the noteworthy unreleased material.
All of which covers what With the Lights Out is, but it doesn't cover whether the set is worthwhile, either as music or as a history lesson. For Nirvana fanatics, it certainly is. While the packaging is slightly irritating -- it opens lengthwise, making it a little difficult to navigate -- it is lovingly, carefully prepared, expertly sequenced and selected (each disc roughly corresponds to each of their three official albums, all following in chronological order), terrifically remastered, and given a book with plenty of rare photos, posters, and memorabilia replicated in the liner notes, along with a touching essay from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and a DVD filled with rare video, including a selection of songs filmed at a 1988 rehearsal at Krist Novoselic's mom's house, the public debut of "Teen Spirit," and a version of "Seasons in the Sun" recorded in a studio in Brazil. However, for listeners who are less dedicated, this set may not be quite as compelling as it initially seems. Listening to archival material like this, whether it's on an official release or a bootleg, is a bit of a chore, since it not only doesn't have the flow of a proper album, but the selections are chosen for historical reasons and therefore are interesting as curiosities as much as they are as full-fledged pieces of music. And that's the case here -- while there is much good music here, there isn't much that adds to Nirvana's legacy, nor is there much that's revelatory. To be sure, the demos are interesting, particularly when Cobain is testing different words to such well-known songs as "Teen Spirit" and "Rape Me," or performing such crushing, metallic rockers as "Serve theRolling Stone (p.154) - Included in Rolling Stone's The 10 Best Reissues & Anthologies Of 2004 - "Remember him this way: exploding with invention, fighting the pain and winning."
Spin (p.97) - "[M]ostly great....[With tracks] that show the band experimenting in ways they never did on their album releases." - Grade: A
Entertainment Weekly (p.89) - "[A] volcanic eruption of Nirvana material....Cobain's early songs burn with thrash-metal energy, bratty humor, and, most of all, ambition." - Grade: A-
Entertainment Weekly (p.184) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[T]he prizes are the full-fledged Nirvana songs that got away....You can't top the naked demo of 'Heart Shaped Box,' which has doomier lyrics and a bent noise-guitar solo."
Uncut (p.134) - 4 stars out of 5 - "A hardcore fan's wildest dreams fulfilled....It's consistently strong."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.120) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[F]ascinating is a career-spanning selection of radio broadcasts beginning with an April '87 appearance....LIGHTS offers multiple perspectives on well-known material."