Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who was best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene and grunge genre.
Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings is a compilation of home recordings by Kurt Cobain that were used as the soundtrack to the film Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, released posthumously on November 13, 2015 by Universal Music.
The album was released as a standard 13-track CD, a 31-track deluxe album, and an audio cassette.
The 13-track standard version focuses on the music found on Cobain's personal cassettes and the 31-track deluxe version showcases tracks from the documentary including spoken word, demos and full songs.
Simultaneously billed as the first Kurt Cobain solo album and the soundtrack to Brett Morgan's 2015 documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, this mangled beast of a record is indeed both. No other records are credited to Kurt Cobain, and this album, in either its single- or double-disc edition, wouldn't exist if Morgan hadn't stumbled upon a cache of homemade cassettes when researching his film. So, truth in advertising in that regard.
The bigger question is whether Montage of Heck needs to exist at all. Purportedly an unflinching, "intimate" -- upon its release in November 2015, no writing about the record, whether it arrived in the form of a review or feature, lacked that word -- portrait of the young artist at work, Montage of Heck is cobbled together from home recordings, some previously leaked on Nirvana bootlegs in the '90s (mainly the Outcesticide series), that come tantalizing close to taking the form of a rough demo but are amorphous enough to be called "free form" or "experimental." Uncharitably, they could also be called "dicking around."
This isn't a criticism as much as it is a description. Cobain made these tapes with no expectation they'd ever be heard. Based on a few, including the opening "The Yodel Song" (inexplicably featured in a "clean" version on the single-disc and "explicit" in the double-disc), it's likely he never considered the tape again after he pressed the stop button.
Certainly, there's some historical merit in exploring early drafts, demos, and outtakes from an important figure, but apart from a handful of demos ("Clean Up Before She Comes," "Sappy," "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle"), Montage of Heck largely doesn't consist of early drafts; it consists of scrawls waiting to be turned into a first draft. While that's interesting for a while, at a certain point -- and it arrives rather quickly -- the fascination curdles and it's hard not to feel unclean, as if you're snooping through your beloved brother's desk.
Deluxe Edition
The album was released as a standard 13-track CD, a 31-track deluxe album, and an audio cassette.
The 13-track standard version focuses on the music found on Cobain's personal cassettes and the 31-track deluxe version showcases tracks from the documentary including spoken word, demos and full songs.
Simultaneously billed as the first Kurt Cobain solo album and the soundtrack to Brett Morgan's 2015 documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, this mangled beast of a record is indeed both. No other records are credited to Kurt Cobain, and this album, in either its single- or double-disc edition, wouldn't exist if Morgan hadn't stumbled upon a cache of homemade cassettes when researching his film. So, truth in advertising in that regard.
The bigger question is whether Montage of Heck needs to exist at all. Purportedly an unflinching, "intimate" -- upon its release in November 2015, no writing about the record, whether it arrived in the form of a review or feature, lacked that word -- portrait of the young artist at work, Montage of Heck is cobbled together from home recordings, some previously leaked on Nirvana bootlegs in the '90s (mainly the Outcesticide series), that come tantalizing close to taking the form of a rough demo but are amorphous enough to be called "free form" or "experimental." Uncharitably, they could also be called "dicking around."
This isn't a criticism as much as it is a description. Cobain made these tapes with no expectation they'd ever be heard. Based on a few, including the opening "The Yodel Song" (inexplicably featured in a "clean" version on the single-disc and "explicit" in the double-disc), it's likely he never considered the tape again after he pressed the stop button.
Certainly, there's some historical merit in exploring early drafts, demos, and outtakes from an important figure, but apart from a handful of demos ("Clean Up Before She Comes," "Sappy," "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle"), Montage of Heck largely doesn't consist of early drafts; it consists of scrawls waiting to be turned into a first draft. While that's interesting for a while, at a certain point -- and it arrives rather quickly -- the fascination curdles and it's hard not to feel unclean, as if you're snooping through your beloved brother's desk.
Deluxe Edition
- "The Yodel Song" – 3:37
- "Been a Son" (demo) – 1:21
- "What More Can I Say" – 3:09
- "1988 Capitol Lake Jam Commercial" – 1:27
- "The Happy Guitar" – 2:12
- "Montage of Kurt" – 2:12
- "Beans" – 1:22
- "Burn the Rain" – 1:17
- "Clean Up Before She Comes" (demo) – 2:35
- "Reverb Experiment" – 2:52
- "Montage of Kurt II" – 1:09
- "Rehash" – 2:35
- "You Can't Change Me / Burn My Britches / Something in the Way" (demo) – 4:19
- "Scoff" (demo) – 0:37
- "Aberdeen" – 4:19
- "Bright Smile" – 1:56
- "Underground Celebritism" – 0:29
- "Retreat" – 2:13
- "Desire" – 2:27
- "And I Love Her" – 2:05 (Lennon–McCartney)
- "Sea Monkeys" – 0:55
- "Sappy" (demo) – 2:30
- "Letters to Frances" – 2:05
- "Scream" – 0:32
- "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" (demo) – 4:24
- "Kurt Ambiance" – 0:26
- "She Only Lies" – 2:47
- "Kurt Audio Collage" – 0:25
- "Poison's Gone" – 2:12
- "Rhesus Monkey" – 0:44
- "Do Re Mi (Medley)" – 10:11
All songs written by Kurt Cobain except where noted.
Notes
Released: November 13, 2015
Genre: Grunge, Acoustic
Style: field recordings, spoken word
Length: 71:05 (deluxe edition)
Label - Universal Music
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