Track Listing
1. Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. In Bloom
3. Come as You Are
4. Breed
5. Lithium
6. Polly
7. Territorial Pissings
8. Drain You
9. Lounge Act
10. Stay Away
11. On a Plain
12. Something in the Way
| Details | | Playing Time: | 59 min. | | Producer: | Butch Vig, Nirvana | | Distributor: | Universal Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | AAD |
Album Notes
Nirvana: Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar); Chris Novoselic (vocals, bass); David Grohl (vocals, drums).
Additional personnel: Kirk Canning (cello).
Recorded at Sound City, Van Nuys, California.
A few years after the matter, even the album cover appears vaguely symbolic: an innocent babe, braving the hazards, lunging for the seductive prize at the end of a hook. Few would've given good odds that the youngster would actually be able to s***** the green, swim back to shore, and laugh triumphantly in the fisherman's face; and history has made fools of those who thought it couldn't be done. NEVERMIND not only gave Nirvana the prize the band had reached out for, it included some epic consequences in the bargain--raising the Seattle grunge trio to the status of Godhead, and forever changing the face of the pop music market.
As ground-breaking albums go, NEVERMIND seemed expressly designed for a post-modern existence. The punk energy and aesthetic ("Territorial Pissings," "Drain You") were its lifeblood; melody, harmony and structure ("Something In The Way," "Come As You Are") were its selling points; the roaring guitars and sub-conscious intellect ("Smells Like Teen Spirit," "In Bloom") were its heart and soul. Nobody had come up with an album like NEVERMIND before, because no one could conceive of an album like it--not since Husker Du had broken up, anyway.
But the place where NEVERMIND struck the most firmly and personally was in the gut. Cobain's throaty roar, mumbled speech, fumbled appearance all confirmed that he was of us, with us, and for us; his gift for combining melodies with acerbic insights showed that he was unlike us. "Here we are now, entertain us" may have come and gone as a catch-phrase, but as an insight into a generation's bitterly restless tide, it ranks right up there with "I can't get no satisfaction."
Editorial Reviews
Included in Rolling Stone's Essential Recordings of the 90's.
Rolling Stone (05/13/1999)
Ranked #1 in Spin Magazine's 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s.
Spin (09/01/1999)
Ranked #12 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.'
NME (10/02/1993)
Ranked #1 in AP's list of the `Top 99 of '85-'95' - ...this Seattle trio, for better or for worse, actually deserved the literal heaps of attention that pursued them. ...[Nirvana] broke into and stole the hearts of this generation because Sir Cobain could write an incredibly catchy song...[with] lyrics that were not shallow treatises...
Alternative Press (07/01/1995)
Highly Recommended - Ranked #3 in Spin's list of the 20 Best Albums Of 1991.
Spin (12/01/1991)
Included in Q Magazine's list of the 50 best albums of 1991.
Q (01/01/1992)
Ranked #5 in Melody Maker's list of the top 30 albums of 1991 - ...aching melodies...fearsome metallic attack...An album which penetrated all the way to the heart of America's metal homeland...
Melody Maker (12/01/1991)
...The culmination of 10 years of post-punk, and a reinvention of the style for a new generation....Smart, sarcastic rock, noisy and catchy and unabashedly confused, that zoomed from a collegiate cult following into the Top 10 without a hint of appeasement...
New York Times (01/01/1992)
Included in Q Magazine's 90 Best Albums Of The 1990s.
Q (12/01/1999)
Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.
Vibe (12/01/1999)
Ranked #1 in EW's Top 10 albums of the '90s - ...[It] continues to spew a molten-lava stream of melody, primal force, and passion...
Entertainment Weekly
Ranked #3 in Q's Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime
Q (10/01/2001)
Ranked #5 in Melody Maker's list of the top 30 albums of 1991 - ...aching melodies....fearsome metallic attack....An album which penetrated all the way to the heart of America's metal homeland...
Melody Maker (12/01/1991)
[A] blissful union of corrosive riffs and bubblegum melodies....Singles such as 'Come As You Are' and 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' brought a rarely heard punk influence into the mainstream.
Q
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