Additional information
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. Nevermind was never meant to change the world, but you can never predict when the zeitgeist will hit, and Nirvana's second album turned out to be the place where alternative rock crashed into the mainstream. This wasn't entirely an accident, since Nirvana did release a record with a shiny surface, no matter how humongous the guitars sounded. For all the anguish on Nevermind, it's bracing because Kurt Cobain exorcizes his demons through evocative wordplay and mangled screams, and because the band has a tremendous, unbridled power that turns pain into pure catharsis. In retrospect, Nevermind may seem too unassuming for its mythic status -- it's simply a great modern punk record -- but though it may no longer seem life-changing, it is certainly life-affirming, which may just be better. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Reviews
Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.50) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Spin (9/99, pp.114-5) - Ranked #1 in Spin Magazine's "90 Greatest Albums of the '90s." Spin (12/91) - Highly Recommended - Ranked #3 in Spin's list of the 20 Best Albums Of 1991. Entertainment Weekly - "With little more than four chords and a torn cardigan, Kurt Cobain unleashed the teen spirit of a generation..." Entertainment Weekly (Spring 2000, p.166) - 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..." Q (10/01, p.106) - Ranked #3 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" Q (12/99, p.70) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Q (1/92) - Included in Q Magazine's list of the 50 best albums of 1991. Uncut (p.101) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "When NEVERMIND rocks, it does so extremely, 'Territorial Pissings' and 'Breed' showcasing Dave Grohl's savage drumming and Krist Novoselic's stringy, limber bass." Alternative Press (7/95, p.75) - 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..." Vibe (12/99, p.160) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century. Melody Maker (12/91) - 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 (12/91) - 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..." Q (Magazine) (p.122) - "[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." New York Times (Publisher) (1/1/92) - "...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..." NME (Magazine) (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #12 in NME's list of the `Greatest Albums Of All Time.' Record Collector (magazine) (p.99) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "NEVERMIND, the album that shot them into the stratosphere, is a riotous, life-affirming laugh."
