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97
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68
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47
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80
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79
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89
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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
With The Lights Out
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 54 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Geffen
Release Date: 23 November 2004
Discs: 3 CD + 1 DVD
Genre(s): Alternative, Rock
Summary
This three-disc box set contains more than 50 previously unreleased recordings by the legendary Seattle band, including demos, live tracks, and alternate versions. Also included is an extensive bonus DVD filled with live performances.
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Spin
Mostly great. [Jan 2005, p.96]
Entertainment Weekly
It's no surprise that most of it's raw; it is a surprise that most of it's worth hearing. [10 Dec 2004, p.89]
Delusions of Adequacy
One of the band’s finest releases and arguably the most comprehensive statement to date on just where the musicians were coming from, the roads they took to get where they ended up, and even possibly where they were headed.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
It’s the way “With The Lights Out” fleshes out the plot that makes it so compelling.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
For the fan-atic, WTLO's scrapbooklike discography unveils both a gold mine of (still) unreleased material and the Seattle trio's penchant for dashing off B-sides, tributes, and noise at the smash of a guitar.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
If you think you want it, you do. [9 Dec 2004, p.184]
Billboard
A revelatory, emotional listen from start to finish, "With the Lights Out" crystallizes Cobain's tortured genius.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
As the set progresses, the trademark Nirvana sound begins to take shape. [Dec 2004, p.152]
The New York Times
It's a collection of odds and ends, yet the music can be cathartic and it can be achingly intimate. [29 Nov 2004]
Read Full Review >The Guardian
Nirvana's feat of moulding indie-band attitude, heavy metal, post-industrial noise and classic pop into an intense incandescent eruption has now been analysed to death. To rip away the posthumous repackaging and expose the band's raw nerve-endings is an amazing feat.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
So, in theory, this big Christmas stocking of demos, B sides, compilation tracks, and curiosities is mostly useful for its historical value, as context. The context, it turns out, rules.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
While there is much good music here, there isn't much that adds to Nirvana's legacy, nor is there much that's revelatory.
Read Full Review >Blender
With 81 chronologically ordered tracks... With the Lights Out can be a slog. But for Nirvana fans, it's also a necessary rite. [Jan/Feb 2005, p.119]
Uncut
A hardcore fan's wildest dreams fulfilled. [Jan 2005, p.134]
The Onion (A.V. Club)
The crown jewel for those without the patience or proclivity to wade through sketches of songs better heard in full, the fourth disc is a DVD of live footage from the beginning to the end.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine
Manages, despite an excess of throwaway material, to be an appropriately eccentric testament to Cobain’s talent.
Read Full Review >New Musical Express
If you're after better versions of classic songs, think again. But as a humanising, comprehensive and often heartbreaking document of a man who, in five years, changed the face of music, almost by accident, it's essential. [20 Nov 2004, p.55]
Pitchfork
Those hoping for a trove of overlooked gems will be disappointed, as too much of With the Lights Out sounds like nothing so much as a dull-edged instrument lifting flakes of material from the bottom of a barrel. Simply put, there's enough good stuff here for a solid single disc.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
So by all means pick up With the Lights Out, but go ahead and trash the curiously un-Nirvana-like packaging, discard the heat-sensitive (!) box, pitch the liner notes, maybe even throw away the DVD.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Not the Holy Grail that was promised... But considering what material is present, the set plays like a fairly compelling musical narrative. [Dec 2004, p.120]
Stylus Magazine
There isn’t a doubt in anyone’s mind that this collection plays it way too safe to satisfy the über-devoted.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
The majority of the material presented here will appeal only to a select group of hardcore fans, music historians and critics.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
The Nirvana box set isn't the Holy Grail. The Nirvana box set isn't even Incesticide. [Jan 2005, p.105]
Drawer B
This collection is the antithesis of anything Kurt Cobain would have authorized, right down to the shiny metal packaging.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 54 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Sloaner aced gave it a10:
The album/Dvd was the best investment i've made in A long time, i completely suggest you purchase the set. although the dvd makes me wish kurt was still alive more and more it was still GREAT, from the first set that included smells like teen spirit to the release of unplugged. not to give anything away but the dvd also includes nirvanas days as a litteral garage band taped as a home video at kurts cobaines parents house..... A MUST BUY.
John W gave it a10:
This was a great idea after Kurt's untimely death...murder... I'm a Cobain relative and I didn't have some of this stuff. It's good this stuff is being released, and for $20, 81 songs, a book, and a DVD isn't bad.
Follow The Noise gave it a2:
Check this out: There's a sort of useless book that comes along with this box set. ON THE BOOK COVER you will find a bunch of "headlines" or what seems like headlines from Nirvana in newspapers. But if you look closely, there's THREE OF THEM printed upside down. The smallest one reads: "Smells like a way to make a fast buck off Nirvana fans" One reads:"Nirvana's newest stuff is old, dull stuff" And Another one reads:"Smells like mean spirit". If you keep looking, there`s one in spanish which translates to "the truth behind the house of the name nirvana" which could mean anything, but why would this be a flattering headline? Or a major one that would be key to their story. It's all a very strange insult. Or a warning that we're getting ripped off big time. Or might even be art designers trying to sneak one past Geffen. To sum up the songs that are worth listening to in this... I think its something like perhaps 15 in 40. Good material...good b-sides ...good covers. But the remaining about 35...total useless. Some old recordings were interesting if you wanted to hear how his Aunt's 2 track recorded sounded. And get this. about 3 different mixes of rape me. The exact Smells Like Teen Spirit off Nevermind. The exact In Bloom off Nevermind. Come on! That's another insult here. Finally the DVD. Um....There's what...Half an hour of stuff on there? Interesting stuff, but you have to really try if you want to put this little in there. The menus are looping videos that look cool and would have been better off in a chapter of their own. The menu music is more interesting than most of the songs in the whole box set. I WANTED TO HEAR THESE SONGS NOT A BUNCH OF CRAP I ALREADY HEARD BEFORE. Final summation. I don't get it. Why am I the only one on the internet so far to have found all these problems with it??? Or am I the only one provoked by it all? I don't care how much I paid for the shit. Even if it was 20$ I'd still be here complaining about the lack of respect these people have for Kurt Cobain/Nirvana's artistic expressions. Like some said, the packaging was a clue. If it's supper clean and glossy like a Seether album...it's not Nirvana.
Samuel gave it a0:
This box set is complete trash. I have Nirvana several bootlegs that are better than the garbage on With the Lights Out. In this box set, there are also pressing errors that weren't even on the material in trading circles. For example, on "Opinion" there are some clicking noises that weren't on the original bootleg. Aside from that song, I'm certain that 90% of the rest of the songs were culled from the Outcesticide bootleg series. Do not buy this box set. You'd be paying top-dollar for a bootleg. My advice: Just download "If You Must", "Blandest", and "Ain't it a Shame" for free online. Those are the only interesting songs on the box set (notice how I didn't call them "good").
Paco Y. gave it a4:
I was a HUGE Nirvana fan, and while I've listened to them to death, I still do have a huge affinity for all of their albums, especially In Utero (their very underrated best all around album). I have owned 3 bootlegs, 2 live shows (Rome, and a rather poor sounding Seattle show) and 1 set of their besides (like Marigold, Marijuana, etc) and I was extremely excited when this set first came out. But then I heard it and instantly realized why this stuff was left for dead on the shelf....it's just not very good. Kurt was a genius, no doubt, but it took him a while to harness his genius. THis set is mostly filled with ineffective projects, rough playing, poor singing, and bad sound quality. Had Nirvana released this stuff on their albums, their impact would have been greatly reduced. While it's nice that some of this has seen the light of day, I'd say of the 3 disc set only about 40 minutes of it is truly memorable, and maybe 30 minutes is good and maybe 20 minutes is fantastic This basically should have stayed on the shelf. If they had uncovered some of the Michael Stipe tapes, etc, or released some of Kurt's versions of the "Live Through This" material, then it would have risen this to maybe a 5-6 even with the filler. If you want "raw" Nirvana, stick with Bleach, a fantastic all around record, besides the overly cheesy Big Cheese. Don't waste your money. I'm a former HUGE nirvana fan (still like 'em...but have listened to them to death) and I'd say there's better music out there for your money. Plus the DVD isn't all that exhilarating either. The critics want to rate this high because of what Kurdt did to the music biz, but this set isn't worth more than a stretched 6/10. I feel like I'm stretching giving this a 4/10.
FirstName LastName gave it an8:
The greatest comfort of Nirvana is that the music is so uncomfortable.
Jon D gave it a9:
This is true nirvana... ok it might not be what kurt wanted nirvana to be because its not what we want to hear, but nirvana was grunge... dirty, sad, emotional music not for the people that want to listen to music to be amazed. the lyrics have multiple meanings and the songs are very addictive once you learn what nirvana was about. And to Bill S Kurt was a musical genious because he started a type of rock music that changed the world of music, he could hold notes just he didnt in most songs because it went with the song better, in the cd unplugged listen to some of the songs and you will hear a voice that wont crack a single time because he wants to hold teh voice. kurt wasnt a bad guitarist he was better then some and he knew what he was doing. nirvana was a true rock milestone and too see how they built that stone buy this box set if you dont want to learn about the band because ur to naive to understand the band then go ahead dont buy it... its for nirvana fans not for nirvana haters.
