- Year of release
- 1991
- Global sales
- 26 million
- Genre
- Grunge rock
- Buy this album
- Download | Buy CD
One of the most potent, cathartic and downright exhilarating albums to ever assault the mainstream, the genre-defining Nevermind opened the alt-rock floodgates and made an icon of its angst-ridden frontman
Best tracks:
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Come As You Are
Lithium
Top facts:
- After the album's release, Cobain became concerned that its glossy production sheen undermined the band's punk ethic, revealing: "Looking back on the production of Nevermind, I'm embarrassed by it now. It's closer to a Mötley Crüe record than it is a punk rock record."
- The cover's underwater baby, Spencer Elden, is now 16 years old. "It's kind of creepy that that many people have seen me naked", he told one interviewer in 2007. "I feel like I'm the world's biggest porn star!"
- Smells Like Teen Spirit was the fruit of Cobain's efforts to "write the ultimate pop song". He confessed to Rolling Stone magazine: "I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band."
If you like this, try:
Pixies: Surfer Rosa
Fugazi: In On The Kill Taker
Pearl Jam: Vitalogy
Mudhoney: Superfuzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles
The Breeders: Last Splash
Next classic album: The Smiths >
