Just over twenty years ago, on the 24th September 1991, one of the most significant albums in music history emerged from the underground rock scene to become a record destined to be more than just a cult classic. In fact, 'Nevermind' is still celebrated today as one of the most important albums of all time: it infested in the ears of mainstream music lovers and garnered the American trio, singer, song-writer and guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, much unexpected commercial success. Nirvana's first album 'Bleach' failed to make quite the same impact upon its release in 1989 and Cobain in particular wanted to ensure that the group's ...  Read the complete review

In 1985 Kurt Cobain met fellow Melvins fan Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington and formed a band. After a series of name changes they finally settled on Nirvana and released their debut album, 'Bleach' (working title; 'Too many Humans') with Sub Pop in 1989 with Chad Channing as drummer (he would later be replaced by Dave Grohl). Listing their influences from a diverse range of musicians including Mudhoney, the Pixies, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, Kurt Cobain sought to create a mixture of punk and pop music. After Cobain's tragic death in 1994 Krist Novoselic went on to form the less than successful 'Sweet 75' and later 'Set Adrift' with Curt Kirkwood ...  Read the complete review

The video to the lead single, Smells Like Teen Spirit, benefited from saturation airplay on MTV, swiftly installing the band as the new champions and, some would say, saviours of rock. The video primarily focused on Kurt Cobain peering into the camera, hair ruffled, half-sneering and snarling his way through lyrics that soon developed legendary status. Disillusioned kids in the audience, boredom sketched on their faces, reacted by jumping with liberation to their feet and started dancing like US teenagers hadn't done since the sixties. There is no question that this riff-heavy song is ultra-important in rock history, but some nagging doubts linger surrounding ...  Read the complete review

Nirvana are often considered an overnight success story, but anyone who has read Charles Cross' book of Kurt Cobain will know that by the time Nevermind was released and launched them to worldwide fame, they had been touring for years and had built up a fantastic reputation on the Seattle scene as the kings of grunge music. Nevermind is Nirvana's second album and it was really kicked off by the success of the single 'Smells like Teen Spirit', this song caught the attention of a generation with the high school video where the punks invade and it ends in a warped mess of bodies and screeches, this heralded a change in direction for American music and really gave ...  Read the complete review

Nevermind is a vital album for any grunge fan in as much as it represents a zeitgeist and a slice of pop culture - the iconography contained within each song is reflective of the 1990s music in general, and of course of the furore that Kurt Cobain and his bandmates started, influencing bands including Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. This album was immensely successful upon its release and saw Kurt and the rest of the band shoot to fame virtually overnight, largely thanks to the lead single, Smells Like Teen Spirit. Above all else, it's perhaps something of a depressing reminder of a talent gone far beyond his time, although of course there's no escaping the fact that ...  Read the complete review