For some who fall between Generation Post-Punk and Generation Pop, Nirvana's simple mixture of desperate guitar noise, infectious punk spirit and pop accessibility serves as a soundtrack for adolescence.
The late Kurt Cobain's unique genius arguably redefined pop music to the extent that loud is the norm in today's rock.
The release of Nirvana, a collection of the band's best-known songs, serves as a testament to the group's tremendous staying power and to the mystique of Cobain's music. The album features songs from every album the band made, along with the previously unreleased "You Know You're Right."
For those unfamiliar with Nirvana's sound, one needs only to inspect this track. It's introduced by disjointed harmonics and ominously rumbling verses of Cobain's seething vocals. Sudden acidic roars of guitar launch the song into its venomous yet catchy chorus.
After the opener, the album traces the band's sound from subversively endearing pop-punk to universally dense and darkly beautiful songs.
"About A Girl" and "Been a Son" are unabashed indie rock songs from the band in its earlier, pre-major-label incarnation. "Sliver" is a ridiculously infectious gem and the perfect indicator of Cobain's latent sense of pop song-craft.
The next four tracks -- "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come as You Are," "Lithium" and "In Bloom" -- all are culled from the 1991 breakthrough Nevermind. They mark the birth of the "grunge revolution" and the integral part that Nirvana had to play in it.
The album's second half takes a markedly different turn in conveying the increasingly bleak and volatile urgency in Cobain's lyrics and music. 1993's In Utero was as sonically uncompromising and stark as its predecessor was radio-friendly and polished.
