The 10 best isolated vocals from Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain
Throughout the history of popular music, nobody mixed grit and melody quite like Kurt Cobain. As the singer, songwriter, and lyricist for grunge gods Nirvana, Cobain was responsible for some of the most memorable vocal melodies of the 1990s. Although his vocal technique owed more to punk rock, his melody writing took cues from John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jeff Lynne, and Lou Reed.
It was the dichotomy between punk energy and pop melodies that made Nirvana so unique. Their classic tracks were bolstered by Cobain’s unparalleled ability to channel power pop, hardcore, classic rock, and even folk music into his own style. During live performances, Cobain would often strain his voice after screaming for hours on end, but Cobain’s studio vocals showed off a keen sense of pitch and timbre.
According to Dave Grohl, Cobain’s primary concern in his songs was melodies. “Kurt used to say that music comes first and lyrics comes second,” Grohl explained during the Classic Albums episode on Nevermind, “and I think Kurt’s main focus was melody.” Those melodies became instantly iconic, whether they were surprisingly tricky or remarkably simple. Cobian’s ability to scream was what got him noticed, but his ability to scream in tune is what has sustained interest in his music for more than 30 years.
To illustrate Cobain’s unmatched skill in writing and performing melodies, here are ten essential isolated vocal tracks that show off his singular singing skills.
Kurt Cobain in 10 isolated vocals:
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
You can’t talk about Kurt Cobain without talking about ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. The iconic first track from the band’s biggest-selling album, Nevermind, is pure Cobain. In five minutes’ time, Cobain crafts one of his most indelible vocal melodies that ever appeared in Nirvana’s catalogue.
The funny thing about ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is that one of Cobain’s brightest melodies is actually in a minor key. The looping vocal line (which gets repeated as a guitar solo later in the song) has quite a bit of melancholy in its DNA, even as Cobain launches into the anthemic chorus melody.
‘In Bloom’
What isn’t often mentioned about Cobain is that he had a remarkable vocal range. If he were being put in a choir, he would probably be categorised as a baritone. But that minimises some of his killer high notes and signature screams. If you want to hear Cobain explore the full range of his voice, check out ‘In Bloom’.
Throughout the verses, Cobain bottoms out his voice to almost bass-level tones. During the pre-chorus, he hops up an octave to raise the tension. By the time the chorus kicks in, Cobain is up another octave, nearly screaming toward the top of his range. This might be a Cobain-centre list, but you can also dig Dave Grohl’s perfect vocal harmonies in the video down below.
‘Lithium’
Kurt Cobain was a man who could both sing and scream. While it seems like a necessary technique to master if you’re playing rock music, few singers could blur the lines between melody, pitch, and larynx-shredding howls like Cobain could. Even when he did get gritty in front of the microphone, Cobain still had a remarkable ability to scream in tune.
No song better exemplifies Cobain’s melodic howl than ‘Lithium’. Throughout the verses, Cobain crafts a melody that could come straight out of the American songbook. Cobain switches over to his signature scream for the choruses, but he never loses track of the harmonic direction that he carved out for himself.
‘Negative Creep’
During the earliest days of Nirvana, Cobain wasn’t terribly interested in lyrics of refined vocal melodies. Mostly looking to replicate the sounds he heard on albums by bands like Mudhoney and the Melvins, Cobain’s approach to vocals on Bleach is more guttural and visceral than it would be on later albums.
The perfect example is ‘Negative Creep’, which features Cobain sounding like a mix between a lumberjack, a death metal vocalist, and Cookie Monster. It was a vocal tone that fits clearly within the lineage of late-1980s grunge bands, but Cobain decided to largely abandon it as he found himself writing more complex and interesting melodies.
‘School’
The mix of screams and melody can best be found on albums like Nevermind and In Utero. But Cobain was finding the balance while Nirvana was working on their first album, Bleach. Songs like ‘Blew’ and ‘About a Girl’ thrive on Cobain’s struggle to balance pop and punk, but his singular ability to straddle both genres was probably best illustrated by his vocal performance on ‘School’.
Most singers would probably just scream their way through ‘School’. But Cobain knew that he had a solid candy-coated vocal melody at the heart of the song. As a result, he doesn’t actually scream all that much during the song – not even during the “no recess” chorus. Instead, he taps into more of a heightened wail that proves Cobain took more inspiration from Robert Plant than he would have cared to admit.
‘Sliver’
Pop music helped shape Kurt Cobain. It was impossible to ignore the ofter sides of Cobain’s tastes when you heard his bouncing melodies. Cobain was as tuneful and harmonically sophisticated as any of his peers in the Seattle grunge scene, and he had a remarkable ability to harmonise with himself in subtle but alluring ways.
Throughout the choruses of ‘Sliver’, Cobain performs close harmonies that are as impressive as they are difficult to replicate. Of course, once he reaches the final chorus, the harmonies become more prominent and obvious. But listening to the isolated track gives you a real appreciation for Cobain’s ability to match his own vocal tones between different takes.
‘Heart-Shaped Box’
Diving deep into Cobain’s isolated vocal tracks often reveal aspects of songs that aren’t obvious on the surface. For instance: did you know that the entirety of ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ is sung in harmony? I certainly didn’t before listening to just the vocal track, but the close harmonies that Cobain sings with himself during the track are some of the most impressive and haunting that he ever recorded.
Nirvana recorded almost all of In Utero with Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota, but when the band’s label were unimpressed with the final mixes, they hired R.E.M. producer Scott Litt to remix the album’s singles, including ‘Heart-Shaped Box’. During the remix sessions, Cobain likely added in the harmonies that make the vocal lines so unique.
‘Rape Me’
Everyone wants a good Cobain scream in their life. Take your pick for your favourite: ‘Territorial Pissings’, ‘Big Cheese’, and ‘Tourette’s’ are all great choices, but when it comes to pure, unvarnished fury, it’s hard to get any better than the final 30 seconds of the band’s most controversial track, ‘Rape Me’.
While the song’s verses and choruses feature Cobain’s iconic switch between soft and loud dynamics, the song’s coda is pure shouts of anger that push Cobain’s voice to its breaking point. Cobain rarely did more than a few takes for his vocals, often blowing out his voice in the process of just a few goes. Luckily, he was right on the money for ‘Rape Me’.
‘Something in the Way’
‘Something in the Way’ was the most unique track on Nevermind. While ‘Polly’ was the other song on the album to feature an acoustic arrangement, that track saw Cobain sing with his usual strident vocal tone. ‘Something in the Way’ required a different approach, one that captured Cobain’s most unique vocal ever recorded.
Barely singing above a whisper, Cobain mumbles out the song’s verses, almost like he’s talking in his sleep. In order to capture the performance, Butch Vig had to unplug various phones and machines in the control booth of Sound City so that Cobain’s vocals were undisturbed. The results are haunting and alluring, with the listener leaning in to catch all of Cobain’s words.
‘You Know Your Right’
The final complete song that Cobain ever recorded with Nirvana, ‘You Know Your Right’ finds the singer still in top form even as drugs and mental illness were wreaking havoc on his life. Returning to the growly and gravelly tone of his early recordings, Cobain doesn’t attack ‘You Know Your Right’ as much as he swerves around it.
Of course, Cobain gets to let loose once the song explodes into its chorus. As his voice gets doubled, Cobain launches into what would become his final iconic scream. Who knows where Cobain would have gone from there, but his vocal tone remained stellar all the way up to his final recorded performance.
