To be clear, I heard Nirvana's paradigmatic Nevermind in its entirety during my formative elementary and middle school years. But I never owned it. And I'd never revisited it since. Until recently.
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was an impossible song to escape growing up, and it remains a stellar opening track, forever bound to its hazy, too-cool-to-fit-in music video (although watch out for the throaty non-sequitur "A mullato/An albino/A mosquito/My libido/Hey...Yay," which has become somewhat cringe-worthy with age). Other memorable singles from my youth now invoke a range of responses, from eternal admiration ("Come As You Are") to mood-dependent appreciation ("In Bloom") to acquired indifference ("Stay Away").
The biggest surprises are the ones I wasn't ready for at the time: the downtempo depravity of "Polly" and the phemonenal closer "Something in the Way" ("it's okay to eat fish 'cause they don't have any feelings"). Over the years, the ennui has translated a lot better than the angst, and this is indeed Nirvana's lasting message. Nevermind's statement, convoluted through years of hype and pop cultural progression, and dampened by its epochal grunginess, remains a uniformly potent codification of suburban distopia.
Essential Tracks:
"Smells Like Teen Spirit"
"Something in the Way"
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