Bleach (1989)
The best piece of discordant random noise ever recorded, dollar-for-dollar.
Grade: C
Nevermind (1991)
A masterpiece of early 90’s grunge-rock, not a single poor track on the whole thing. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” sounds like an anthem that will never lose its power, starting things off with a thunderous, defiant blast. “Something In The Way” finishes it off with a haunting, lovely, faintly eerie performance. Everything in between is worth your time to a certain extent. They could never hope to top this, so maybe it’s (in some small way) a good thing they made only one other studio album. It’s better to burn out, of course, according to Mr. Young. I certainly agree here. A must-own.
(“Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Lounge Act”, “Something In The Way”)
Grade: A+
Incesticide (1992)
Not much here of note. Stick with the big three (‘Nevermind’, ‘In Utero’, ‘Unplugged’) and you’ll get all you really need, with the exception of “Sliver”.
(“Sliver”)
Grade: D
2012: “Aneurysm” isn’t worth listening to the rest of the sh1t between itself and “Sliver”, but it ain’t bad.
Grade: D+
In Utero (1993)
Yes, they’ve done it. A follow-up almost as good as the original release. In fact it’s better than ‘Nevermind’ overall, but it doesn’t have a killer track to match “Teen Spirit”. “Rape Me” is as close as they get this time, and I have amazing difficulty playing that song around any member of the opposite sex.
(“Rape Me”, “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle”)
Grade: A
Unplugged In New York (1994)
Why the HELL did they cover two mediocre songs here? (“Plateau” and “Oh Me”). Because Kurt liked them and he doesn’t pander to or even really care much about his “audience”. No “Smells Like Teen Spirit” acoustic version here, but that’s a good thing: Tori Amos already made a “soft version” that is definitive. Some nice covers, one of which is from the same group as the two bad ones. I could argue with some songs (“Polly” was always the worst song on ‘Nevermind’, even if it wasn’t a bad song at all), but the atmosphere is wonderful, the ambience welcoming and forgiving, and this captures the group at its absolute best acoustically. Hear them display their mastery over light, after having done so with dark on ‘In Utero’.
(“The Man Who Sold The World”, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”, “Lake Of Fire”)
Grade: A
From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah (1996)
I love Nirvana, but this live one just doesn’t capture their power and melody the way the studio does. A bad day at the office? No, because the selections were taken from different concerts. Bad days, I guess.
Grade: C+
Nirvana (2002)
“You Know You’re Right” isn’t worth it. And neither is “Been A Son”. Everything else you should have already, and if not you should buy ‘Nevermind’, ‘In Utero’, and ‘Unplugged In New York’ instead of this. Maybe ‘Bleach’, too, if you really want to. Too many good songs on the first two to be covered here. But if you have a choice between this or no Nirvana (and almost anything else), take this.
Grade: A
Live At Reading (2009)
I’m sure if I was there I’d probably appreciate it a lot more. But I wasn’t. Concert albums are invariably wonderful nostalgic mementos to those that were at said concert, but no set is perfect. You can’t multitrack, you can’t re-do fck-ups, you can’t try 10 takes until you get it just right. So the only reasons I’d ever listen to this again are “Drain You”, “Lithium” (which Kurt really rips into), and “About A Girl”, because they’re the only ones as good as the originals, or different in an interesting enough way. But that doesn’t mean they’re not still d@mn good songs, at least until you get near the end and Kurt decides to fck around. Good for him, but not for me.
(“Drain You”, “Lithium”)
Grade: A-
Icon: Nirvana (2010)
See ‘Nirvana (2002)’, scratch the “Been A Son” comment.
Grade: A