For anyone who has not gotten the new 3CD/1DVD box set "With The Lights Out" from Nirvana... This set is absolutely amazing. Many of the songs and demos that are on the set I have had for years now on cassettes that have found their way to me but on this set they have been cleaned and mastered fantastically. Then there are the songs and demos that have never seen the light of day... They speak for themselves.

There is some great humor here starting right off Disc 1 with the band at their very first gig about to launch into Led Zeppelin's "Heartbreaker" and Kurt can be heard yelling in the background "I don't know this song!" Kurt's trippy demo of "Beans", with his harmonized vocal is hilarious. There are great "Bleach" era demos ("If You Must", "Pen Cap Chew"), to some killer sessions with Mark Lanegan doing Leadbelly covers. But here is where it hits the hardest...

The very last song (rumored) to have ever been recorded is a demo included here called "Do Re Mi" (sometimes referred in the past as "Dough, Ray and Me"). This demo (along with the acoustic "You Know Your Right") is the clear example of where Kurt was about to go musically... The melody is breathtaking, and the beauty of the composition is absolutely devastating knowing what was to come. The recording is Kurt himself with an acoustic guitar (probably at home, Courtney can be heard talking to him in the background as the song finishes) and the starkness of his voice with his lone acoustic sets up a landscape of undefinable melodic beauty. This song is worth the price of the entire set.

All you need to be reminded of the value of this set is to turn on the radio... Today's rock music genre is a a soul-less desolate landscape of 4th and 5th generation imitators of previous forms. This box set historically shows the most important band since the Beatles before and during the most important time in musical history since the fab four walked off the plane at JFK airport. Who else came along, sent a music genre before them to the graveyard, defined a generation, opened the gates for a whole new genre of musicains, and left a void in it's wake a generation wide? Exactly.

The bullet that killed Kurt Cobain didn't just kill a person, it blew a hole thru a rock n roll in a way that no one could have ever imagined, even more so than John Lennon. Imagine if Lennon or McCartney had died at the height of their skills? You don't have to, it happened in Seattle in 1994.

When you listen to "Do Re Mi" the "What could have been" is absolutely heartbreaking...

With The Lights Out is Nirvana's best release. Its combination of gritty home recordings, demos, b-sides and outtakes make any hard-core Nirvana fan love the band even more (if possible). But when I say "hard-core," I really do mean hard-core. With The Lights Out contains many unfinished songs, some poorly recorded, others too short or too long. Songs like Oh The Guilt and Curmudgeon were so overly grunge that they weren't released on Nirvana's maintstream albums. Very Ape, in the middle of a verse, was recorded over with Kurt Cobain randomly singing "A da da dum da da da da." This truly is Nirvana's greatest release, but for those who aren't regular listeners, don't waste your money.

For the fans, especially bootleggers, With The Lights Out is a dream. The set features the rarest of available bootlegs. Even the most avid bootleggers will only have 15 of these songs. Multiply that by 4 and you've got 60 extraordinarily rare songs, a bootlegger's heaven. I had only six of the tracks featured in the set, and i searched for hours. Most of the songs are better than those released mainstream. All the songs, rare or different versions, are amazing.

With The Lights Out serves two purposes. First, any songs that hadn't been released finally are. Second, it tells the short history of Nirvana. The first CD is filled with raw songs, horrible vocals and guitaring, and even worse drumming. The second CD is much better. Many of the songs are put together better and they sound great. The third CD is just as amazing, but it's also very emotional. As I listened to it, particularly You Know You're Right, Kurt Cobain's voice was incredible. The emotion in that CD, the knowledge that Kurt Cobain would kill himself, it makes listening madly depressing. When All Apologies (the last song) finished, I sat in silence for a really long time. It was the first time I gave serious thought to how horrible Kurt Cobain's life had been when he killed himself. In the songs near the end, he sounded weak, almost like he out-did himself and lost his voice. But he hadn't lost his voice. These songs were still unbelievably great, even in his depression. With The Lights Out is a great CD, especially if it can evoke such emotion.

Overall, the music is great, emotional, and explains a lot about Nirvana's history. Its poorly recorded songs, which so many people complain about, are only bad for about 10 seconds in each song. These rough parts are no worse than a CD with minor scratches that makes one song have a few pops for 2 seconds. I am not trying to defend Nirvana. Some of the rough songs are horrible, but it is so brief that there really isn't any reason to complain.

The DVD is horrible except for the last three videos which are awesome. It is horribly edited, terrible sound, etc. But the last three, Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam, Talk To Me, and Seasons in the Sun are great. In Jesus..., Dave Grohl's symbol collapses in the middle of a concert. It is also profesionally recorded, so the sound is DVD quality. Talk to Me has good sound, and it was performed well. Seasons in the Sun is hilarious. The band spoofs it so much, pretending to get emotional. Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic are really funny. The DVD is screwed up at one point. The order is different than printed in the 60 page booklet. The In Bloom video isn't in the right place on the DVD. When i watched the DVD for the first time, I almost fell asleep. But the last three videos pull it back up to 5 STARS.

GET THIS CD IF YOU'RE A FAN.

It's about time. The fans finally get their long awaited boxed set. No thanks to Courtney Love.

Anyways, it's been a long time since I've been so pleased with a music purchase. Granted, I've heard most of these "previously unreleased" songs before on my various bootleg releases, but those were all pretty awful recordings. "With the Lights Out" cleans these tracks up and makes them more listenable which was worth the $50 for me. Still, don't buy this boxed set and expect to hear "Nevermind" quality recordings.I can imagine that there will be some displeased listeners. I can picture some little kid listening to "Beans" for the first time and saying "What the hell is this? THIS doesn't sound like 'Smells Like Teen Spirit!' GRrrrrr!!!! I want my money back!" Then that same kid will write a review for Amazon saying that he is the biggest Nirvana fan ever but the boxed set sucks because he was expecting 60 brand new studio quality songs, but instead got demos and solo recordings JUST LIKE THE BACK OF THE BOX SAYS!!!

Sorry for that little tangeant. As I was saying, "With the Lights Out" is a great purchase for Nirvana fans. If you want to hear some relatively high quality recordings of Nirvana material you may not have heard before, or want to hear some different versions of the songs you know, go ahead and pick it up. If you only like the Nirvana songs they play on the radio or if "Incesticide" was too weird for you, then don't bother.

This collection has so much to offer to every Nirvana fan. Those who aren't familar with the material of Nirvana should listen to the mainstream success 1991 record, Nevermind. What this collections gives you is a colorful palette of songs that are mostly unheard. Those that have bootlegs of these songs will find solice that every song is crisp and produced carefully that makes this worth getting. It contains demos (some of which were never recorded in studios). It contains different versions of songs that give a particular song a different personality than what was released. It contains studio recorded songs that were released only on compilations and singles. It contains live tracks and comes with a DVD. It contains many tracks with Chad Channing on drums (who some prefer over Grohl).

Those that have collected just about everything officially released by Nirvana will notice a few of the recordings are missing (released B-sides) or edited in this collection. "Moist V" from the Heart-Shaped Box UK single is not included (there is a demo instead). "Do You Love Me?" is not included which was released on a KISS tribute album. The original Hormoaning EP version of "Even in his Youth" is also omitted. Lastly, "You Know You're Right" and "Been A Son" understandably are not included since they were released in the Greatest Hits album in 2002. Other songs have been edited although not for worse. Examples includes removed lighter sound effects from the intro in "Oh, the Guilt" and Kurt's unintentional cough before the second verse in "Return of the Rat." These omissions/changes hardly detract from this collection.

In my opinion, the highlights of this compilation are "Jesus Doesn't Want Me For a Sunbeam," "Old Age", "Seasons in the Sun," and "Here She Comes Now." There is so much to listen to that any Nirvana fan should not be deprived from listening to With the Lights Out

this box set is a great purchase for any nirvana fan. not a great way to get introduced to the band, we would have to suggest nevermind or incesticide for that, but all in all a great collection. kurt's acoustic sets, recorded at the relative time of his death are of great insight while songs such as "pen cap chew" show the band as youngsters just getting started full of fury. the price however is not so cool. at almost 50 dollars i am glad i bought mine at the local target for 27.99 on the release date.