‘Undertow’: Warpaint’s reinvention of Nirvana
One of the most interesting moments in Netflix’s 2019 documentary series The Defiant Ones, an ostensible exploration of Dr Dre‘s and music-biz entrepreneur Jimmy Iovine’s crossing career paths but largely a plug for their Beats headphones, shows Dre in the Bahamas rocking out to grunge legends Nirvana, blasting their ripper track ‘Stay Away’ from loudspeakers and evidently pumped during its three odd minutes. Turning to his producer, Dre remarks, “Just listening to this shit. It’s bananas. Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, that’s my favourite rock group of all time.”
It’s hard to overstate how seismic Nirvana’s sophomore LP’s impact was in ’91. Embracing a beefier sonic polish from their debut Bleach, and riding a wave of simmering alternative music looking to burst into the mainstream, Nevermind‘s Autumn drop that year killed hair-metal and power ballads overnight, influencing a score of future musicians across a range of disparate movements including Adam Levine, Dizzee Rascal, Lana Del Ray, and psychedelic dream pop quartet Warpaint.
Warpaint guitarist and singer Theresa Wayman has been candid in her reverence for Nirvana and their frontman Kurt Cobain, describing their raw, emotional intensity to Fordham University radio in ’16 as possessing “the holy grail of crossover balance”, elaborating while reflecting on their ’93 single ‘Heart-Shaped Box’: ” I don’t come from punk, but I come from the anti-establishment in my own way and I know how hard it can be to make sense to many while also making sense to yourself.”
Cobain’s influence directly shaped the lead single from their 2010 debut, The Fool. Speaking to 6 Music about the genesis of ‘Undertow’, bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg revealed the Nirvana song that hovered over its development: “Theresa (Wayman) and I were just working and I had a bassline. She just started singing the lyrics to ‘Polly‘ over that song. But instead of making that a cover – even though it sounded really cool – we said: ‘Well, write your own words to the song.'” She added: “There’s definitely an homage to ‘Polly’ in the chorus, the first line – but you listen to the songs back-to-back they sound nothing alike. Yeah, it is a bit of an homage to Kurt (Cobain) and Nirvana.”
It’s a haunting song. A moment of terse respite amid Nevermind‘s anthemic, punk attack, ‘Polly’ details the devastating abduction, sexual assault and torture of a 14-year-old girl at the hands of Gerald Friend, kidnapped at knifepoint after a concert she was attending.
A brittle, acoustic number that forces the listener inside the dank perspective of a sadistic predator, the lyrics’ detached relationship with the abuse inflicted presents a chilling document of psychopathy. According to Charles R. Cross’ biography Heavier than Heaven, Bob Dylan caught a live performance of ‘Polly’, remarking that Cobain “had heart”.
While ‘Undertow’ is far from the stinging folk of ‘Polly’, Nevermind‘s sixth track can be felt when listening closely. Aside from the shared “hurt yourself” line, Wayman’s strumming mirrors the chord changes and tempo of ‘Polly’s disquieting crawl, shifting the aural dread away to a more indie-pysch lilt.
Warpaint’s hazy songcraft lends itself to imbuing their work with their influences in abstract ways, guitarist Emily Kokal revealing to Mojo their nebulous, creative method: “We write from beginning to end, in a linear fashion. We don’t say, “OK, here’s a verse, here’s a chorus, another verse.” We usually start jamming on an idea, then it feels like it’s time to change, so we’ll write the next part, and then the third part might be completely different, and the fourth. We might never repeat any of them again, but it feels like it’s a natural progression from beginning to end.”
