Nirvana - Nevermind

Nevermind is the second studio album by American grunge rock band Nirvana, originally released in September 1991 via DGC Records.

Hoping to sell 250,000 copies when it was released, Nevermind went on to shift 100 times that amount; and, since Kurt Cobain’s in April 1994, its surprise success has been acknowledged as a factor in his tragic demise.

There is an unquestionable MTV sheen over the album resulting in Cobain dismissing Nevermind as “a Motley Crue record” rather than the punk album initially intended.

When mixing went awry with original the producer, Slayer mixer Andy Wallace was brought in to tweak the final mixes. While he was used less studio trickery than the average pop producer, Cobain was right: what now sits on 26 million shelves is definitely not punk.

Instead, it’s an awesome mainstream rock record. Its four standalone cuts, including “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are” are exemplary, soaring rock singles which quickly became angst-ridden anthems for disaffected teens across the world. The quiet/loud formula that Nirvana made their own was borrowed from the Pixies, as Cobain freely admitted; but Frank Black’s merry crew never managed to hook listeners like Nevermind did.

The guitars are all crunched, phased and compressed to within an inch of their six strings, and the drum sounds are predictably accountant-tight and brickie-tough. Lyrically, aside from “Polly”, Nevermind rarely goes beyond woe-is-me or the cryptic: witness “On A Plain”’s “The black sheep got / blackmailed again / forgot to put / on a zip code".

But even the occasional piece of nonsensical wordplay couldn’t hide the beguiling, revelatory side of Cobain's writing. The aforementioned “Polly”is about a rapist, while “Something In The Way” is about sleeping rough - although friends of Cobain's have since denied Cobain ever said as much.

And there were Cobain’s vocals. By turns haunted and hurting, caged and desperate, it’s his scuffed, torn diary of a voice that you remember after the guitars have faded. Ultimately it's his fraying presence that ensures that Nevermind is a classic.

Check out the tracks: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”; “Come As You Are”; “Lithium” and “In Bloom”.

This "Back to Black" series reissued LP with remastered audio is pressed in Europe on 180 Gram Heavyweight Vinyl and includes a digital download.