Lithium is the latest Nirvana song to be taken from the album Battle for Seattle, Little Roy's 10 track reggae tribute to grunge legends, Nirvana. I'm not sure what Kurt Cobain would think about reggae covers of his songs, or indeed anybody making records made up entirely of his music, but as far as being a tribute to a legend, this could have been a hell of a lot worse.
Reggae and grunge are two entirely different genres of music: grunge is dark, angry and about isolation whereas reggae is uplifting and all about about joining together. So by taking grunge songs and making them into reggae tracks you're practically forced to completely re-imagine the song. Which is exactly what's been done here, which is impressive as Lithium is pretty dark, even by Nirvana's standards.
The track is obviously much more upbeat than the original, there's no angst and the distorted guitars are gone and instead you've got some very nice vintage sounding beats and lovely harmonies during the chorus. The whole track has a very retro sound to it and it sounds like the kind of reggae you'd find on vinyl hidden away in a second hand record shop.
To Nirvana fans and/or people who aren't fans of reggae this might make the track seem a little cheesy. That always seems to be the way with genre changing covers though and true, the song is pretty radio-friendly but as well as being a cover it's also a classic sounding track from a reggae veteran.
On the surface of it this track may sound vastly different from Cobain's original but if you look a little closer the formula of the song remains intact. It has a completely new sound but retains the essence of the original and that really is what makes a good cover and a good tribute to an artist, which is exactly what this track is.
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Reggae and grunge are two entirely different genres of music: grunge is dark, angry and about isolation whereas reggae is uplifting and all about about joining together. So by taking grunge songs and making them into reggae tracks you're practically forced to completely re-imagine the song. Which is exactly what's been done here, which is impressive as Lithium is pretty dark, even by Nirvana's standards.
