As Tone Deaf reported back in August, to coincide with the DVD/Blu-ray release of Brett Morgen’s much talked-about Kurt Cobain documentary, Montage of Heck, Universal will release an album of unreleased Cobain music.

In addition to containing all of the music featured in the film, there will be a dozen additional tracks, “audio montages”, and even a comedy sketch. All of the material was organized by Morgen after culling through “hours upon hours” of Cobain’s personal archives.

“[It’s] curated to feel as though one were sitting in Kurt’s living room watching him create over the course of an afternoon,” Morgen told Billboard. The songs reportedly range “from thrash to ragtime and everything in between”.

“These are all just Kurt by himself with the guitar,” Morgen added. “These aren’t multi-track, finished songs or work-ups, but they’re extraordinary, and I think they provide a tremendous insight into his [creative] process. I think they further our understanding of Kurt, both as a musician and as a man.”

News of the so-called Kurt Cobain solo album has been met with as much criticism as it has jubilation. While some fans are hungry to get their hands on anything they can from the late Nirvana frontman, others are a little perturbed by the proposition.

As far as many are concerned, releasing Cobain’s previously untouched solo recordings is tantamount to grave robbing – a cynical cash grab used to rinse another dollar out of the troubled songwriter’s unrivalled legacy.

“If you value Kurt Cobain, don’t listen to his new song,” wrote Gigwise in a recent article, which featured a helpful embed of the exact tune we weren’t supposed to be listening to – a solo Cobain recording of the Nirvana track ‘Sappy’.

It’s not the first time that a posthumous collection has received flack, not even the first time in recent memory. Many readers will remember the controversy that ensued after Amy Winehouse’s label revealed they’d destroyed her unfinished recordings.

Many Michael Jackson fans also criticised the release of Xscape, which was in fact the eleventh album released by Sony and Motown since the king of pop’s death, but the first that wasn’t a compilation to receive mainstream exposure.

So why do we feel the need to mess with the legacies of legendary musicians after they die? Well, one answer would be money. Labels are always looking for newfangled ways to reap more cash from their archives, but Brett Morgen has another answer.

Speaking recently to Rolling Stone, Morgen acknowledged the criticism that’s been lobbed at him, his film, and the forthcoming album, and understands there will be criticism surrounding the “morality of putting out unfinished work”.

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However, Morgen said that there is merit in releasing Cobain’s unfinished work, comparing it to the release of Bob Dylan’s famous Bootleg Series. “I know that is a criticism that will be lobbied against the project,” he said.

“But just like the Bootleg Series furthers your understanding of Bob Dylan’s process, I find that Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings furthers not just our understanding of his process but represents yet another angle, another side of Kurt — an artistic outlet that he was not necessarily able to work with in the context of a three-piece band.”

“It’s not scraps and discarded, insignificant material. It really is furthering our understanding of one of the most significant artists of our time.” Morgen added that the album was approved by Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, who co-directed the film.

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