DU Album of the Day: Nirvana "Nevermind"
As I'm sure you might know already it was 18 years ago today that Kurt Cobain died of a drug overdose. Cobain was the lead singer of Nirvana, a band that help to usher in a new sound for the 90s - a sound that was referred to as 'Grunge'. This was the music of a dissatisfied youth, a far cry from the New Wave sounds that ruled the 80s.
'Nevermind' is over 20 years old now and yet it's music still sounds modern today and is a staple of your standard alt-rock/modern rock stations along with those that define themselves as classic rock. There were many many great albums of the 90s but "Nevermind" always ended up on top or at least in the top 5 of any 'Best of the 90s' list. And in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 best albums of all time - this was #17, ranked just ahead of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" and just behind Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks". Even my beloved Led Zeppelin doesn't have a better album on the list (although technically I think they should).
The breakthrough song from this album is the perennial ode to dissatisfied youth "Smells like Teen Spirit" complete with the haunting video of a high school peep rally going uber gothlike.
Nirvana is a band that I know I truly miss. Drummer David Grohl has gone on to create the highly sucessful band Foo Fighters and bassist Krist Novoselic seems to have moved on from music and into politics. Although Krist mostly works local politics I could see this guy running for a bigger office in the next decade (he also ironically looks alot like my brother although very opposite in political views.)
