0602498867181. Pre-Owned: Good condition. CD. Appearing a year after the long-awaited three-disc With the Lights Out which was supposed to be a clearinghouse for all existing Nirvana demos and rarities Sliver: The Best of the Box is a single-disc compilation of highlights from that set. Of course a comp like this needs to have collector bait in order to guarantee interest from the die-hard fans so in addition to 19 previously released cuts this has three previously unreleased tracks most noteworthy being the 1985 demo of Spank Thru recorded when Kurt Cobain s band was called Fecal Matter. The other two songs are a 1990 studio demo of Sappy the song first released under the title Verse Chorus Verse on the No Alternative various-artists album and a Boom Box Version of Come as You Are which is a taped rehearsal take of the song recorded before Nevermind. All three of these would have fit nicely on the box (and arguably should have been there especially Spank Thru which is the best of the earliest Nirvana-related recordings) and for obsessives they re enough to warrant a grudging hesitant purchase. The real question is whether Sliver is worthwhile for serious fans who nevertheless for whatever reason don t want three discs of demos and outtakes. The answer is: kinda. Most of the major songs from With the Lights Out are here but not all of them. What s missing are outtakes like Verse Chorus Verse (a different song than Sappy ) B-sides like Curmudgeon and non-LP cuts like I Hate Myself and I Want to Die. While it s understandable that a weird novelty like Beans wouldn t make the cut the absence of these three cuts mean this comp does fall short of its billing as being The Best of the Box and it also makes it of less interest to fans who just want all the truly noteworthy cuts from the box. That said this does have such great items as the outtake Old Age the non-LP single Oh the Guilt and a demo of Leadbelly s Ain t It a Shame plus acoustic demos of Cobain s last two songs Do Re Mi and You Know You re Right which is enough to satisfy the curiosity of most listeners. But it has to be said that due to its source material of home recordings and lo-fi tapes Sliver like With the Lights Out is not easy listening and demands listeners utmost attention -- and if listeners are willing to concentrate that hard on Nirvana rarities they d probably be better off getting three discs of the stuff instead of just one. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Rovi