Review
The Nirvana Song Encyclopedia
August 13, 1999
Robert Brooks

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Introduction

Remember when you first began to listen to Nirvana, unless you bought In Utero or were a very good listener, you could understand the lyrics?  For many of us, finding the exact lyrics were pretty tough, until the internet became popular, that is.  Now you can find lyrics and much more on the internet. How does a page that deals will songs measure up?  Quite handsomely. 

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Connectivity Test

• Modem:  US Robotics 56K Winmodem

• Connected at 32K bps

• "Welcome" pages are included in the test

The page will probably download about 31 seconds using Internet Explorer, it will take about 32 seconds using Netscape Navigator.  

Explanation:  The download time seems to be pretty accurate.  If 44K is about the median of 28.8 and 56, the images downloaded like they should.  Let's keep in mind that images are just one side of the download scene.  The page has four frames, and each frame is like a page, so it does increase the download time by just a notch, but not a tremendous one.

[Score: 8 out of 10]

Page Interface

As I mentioned in the above paragraph, the page has four frames.  The main and largest one is in the top right hand corner, another is below that one, and the last two are the left sides of the page.  Two of the frames are blue, one is purple, and the main one is black.

• Main frame - Site information, lyrics archive, multimedia, poll, browse lyrics/discography, and banners.
• Navigation frame 
• Counter frame - Most of the things as the frame, but for navigational purposes.
• Search frame - Lyrics/Discography. 

The page is set up quite nicely, but it could save some space by putting everything together instead of using frames, or, arrange the frames in another manner.  The two frames on the left could be merged together.  Regardless, the interface looks good in a mysterious way.  There is a non-frames version of the page that is the same as the main frame except there are no other frames.  The navigation on the site is excellent in regards of finding information easily, and the links are done in an intelligent manner.

[Score: 29 out of 33]

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Site Content

It is a theory that the less variety of content a site has, the more original it actually is.  Although that theory has not been proven yet, would this site help support that theory?

Multimedia

• MIDI archive - 72 songs in all.
• Picture archive - No pictures of the band, but instead pictures of album covers and CDs, 85 in all.
• Real Audio archive - 21 in all, gives information on the sound quality of the song, length (very helpful), and where it can be found.
• Liner notes - from Nevermind, Incesticide, Hormoaning, and Wishkah. They were "included for completeness."

Lyrics

• Search - This site will have all of the lyrics available, but it has several ways of searching, namely: Power Search, By Letter, By Album, and Index of the Songs.  Excellent navigation for the songs, contains the background information on the song, where it can be found, and links to the MIDI and Tabs of that song.  Excellent way of fitting everything together.

Discography

• Search or Browse - Discographies included from '88 to '94, except for the year 1990.  If possible, you will find Real Audio or MIDI versions of the songs listed in that particular album or release.

Tablature

• Search or Browse - Contains the tabs, information on tunings, tabs symbols, chords, and notes on noisemaking (feedback).

[Score: 53 out of 56]

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Conclusion

Although this site doesn't have all of the content of Never Fade Away or the enormous library like Grunger's Corner, this site is excellent in finding lyrics, tabs, MIDI and Real Audio files in one place.  The navigation on this site is probably one of the best I've seen.  The site is well put together and it deserves to be commended.

[Overall Score: 90 out of 99]

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