Ranking Every Nirvana Song – Part Thirty-One: “D-7” vs “Sifting”

Not that I would compare the quality of this blog to the quality of Nirvana’s musicianship and songwriting, but I’m just going to go ahead and point out that it’s actually been a longer period of time since I’ve written a post in this series than the time period between the release of Nevermind and the release of In Utero.

It stands to reason that this blog post will be better – and more influential – than either of those records were! Because it’s spent so long in the hopper!

Anyway, here are a couple of songs that will definitely land in the lower-middle!

D-7

Another of Nirvana’s storied studio recordings of cover songs, D-7 is a song by the Wipers. The song is structured more or less as a “quiet version of a song” followed by “louder and faster version of the same song”. I had it in my head before listening to this recording (which I have heard many times over the years), that it was a relatively minor entry in the Nirvana cannon, but listening to it now… I’m pretty into this.

The opening half of the tune captures a moody, eerie vibe that I’ve heard on other Nirvana tunes (like the other song in this post), but perhaps more successfully than many of the others. The bassline in this section is particularly tasty, all swoopy and lurching.

I might usually roll my eyes at the whole “now do a punked up version of the song” thing (does anybody really think that “New Wave Polly” is the better version of that song?), but the back half punk section of “D-7” is accurate to the original and really rips. It’s kinda punk-by-numbers, but I might argue that the best punk rock is that which remains at least somewhat rudimentary.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just in the mood for this kind of thing today, but “D-7” really hits the spot. It should also be pointed out that this recording is a real showcase for the drums, with lots of swell little fills and accents peppered all over the place.

Is this actually one of the best Nirvana covers?

Sifting

The thing I remember about listening to Bleach when I was a kid, was that there were a pile of songs that were very easy to like – your Schools and your Negative Creeps, and your Blews and your About A Girls – and then there were a handful of songs that were harder to like and fell into what I mentally categorized to be “scary Nirvana”. “Papercuts” was, like, the definitive “scary Nirvana” song to me. But “Sifting” was another “scary Nirvana” song.

The song is all shuffling, atonal menace from the get-go. Dale Crover certainly was/is the king of chuggy feeling drum parts. There are a pile of tunes on Bleach that contain vocal performances that feel like they’re at least a little bit of a hangover from 80s era metal, and “Sifting” is one of the prime examples. The “your eyes” section in particular feels a tad hilarious to me.

There are actually a lot of things about “Sifting” that I feel like I could gripe about that wind up landing in the “W” column for me. It’s on the long side, but that’s partially because of the extended guitar solo/instrumental section, and that section is – for me – the creepy centerpiece of the whole track. I remember hearing that guitar work as a kid and wondering how I could manage to pull off that perfectly haunting vibrato on my own guitar (spoiler: I never did). Also, the song’s transition into its “Don’t have nothin’ for you” chorus feels jarring every time, but I like how jarring it feels.

Maybe I’m just in the mood for Nirvana today, but I enjoyed revisiting this track more than I had been expecting to, as I have always considered it to be… not a Bleach fave. It’s got some fun stuff going on!

The Ranking

Look, these aren’t top 10 (or top 20) tier Nirvana tracks, but I certainly enjoyed listening to them. I have to be honest, I haven’t looked at my ranking list in like two years and I’m now scratching my head at some of the decisions I’ve apparently made. “Sliver” at 21?! “Territorial Pissings” not at #1?!

But I must have had reasons, so I’m not going to change anything right now. I will, though, rank “D-7” as a better cover song than either of the Meat Puppets covers that are below, so it will land at 38 (it is also better than “Marigold”, let’s get real). It seems fitting that “Sifting” lives beside “Paper Cuts”, and maybe just below it because “Paper Cuts” is scarier.

I think that maybe “Paper Cuts” and “Sifting” actually both deserve to be higher on this list than around the 40 mark. Not much higher, but I think that they may both be better than “Stain”. But like I said, I’m not going to do any major rearranging right now.

That can wait another two years.

The updated ranking is:

1. In Bloom
2. Heart-Shaped Box
3. Smells Like Teen Spirit
4. About A Girl
5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
6. Breed
7. Scentless Apprentice
8. Territorial Pissings
9. Dive
10. Sappy
11. Dumb
12. Milk It
13. Very Ape
14. Lithium
15. Serve The Servants
16. On A Plain
17. Drain You
18. Polly
19. Lounge Act
20. Stay Away
21. Sliver
22. Tourette’s
23. Love Buzz
24. Blew
25. School
26. Rape Me
27. Been A Son
28. Endless Nameless
29. Son of a Gun
30. Molly’s Lips
31. I Hate Myself And Want To Die
32. You Know You’re Right
33. Pennyroyal Tea
34. Curmudgeon
35. Moist Vagina
36. Stain
37. Mr Moustache
38. Big Cheese
39. D-7
40. Marigold
41. Paper Cuts
42. Sifting
43. Lake of Fire
44. Oh, Me
45. Swap Meet
46. Downer
47. Scoff
48. Aero Zeppelin
49. Even In His Youth
50. Oh, The Guilt
51. Spank Thru
52. Blandest
53. Pen Cap Chew
54. Talk To Me
55. Do You Love Me?
56. Hairspray Queen
57. Mrs. Butterworth
58. Ain’t It A Shame
59. Clean Up Before She Comes
60. Help Me I’m Hungry
61. Opinion
62. Beans

“In Bloom” is still the greatest Nirvana song of all time!

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