One of those albums where so much has been said about it, every song has been picked over musically and lyrically like a day-old carcass in the Serengeti.
It was certainly an early discovery for me. My brother had a copy on cassette, and while I wasn't really a fan of "loud music" at that point, this one had enough melody and I found Kurt's voice interesting enough that it won me over. I listened to it quite a bit and rewinding it to listen again and again... then one day I was doubly rewarded when I actually bothered to turn the tape over and listen to the second side too!
It's an album (and band) of contrasts and contradictions. From the loud/quiet/loud formula that the band specialised in, to Cobain wanting to revel in punk rock, even as he wrote snappy pop songs. Producer Butch Vig takes the songs from close, tight intimate sounds to booming, stadium-ready thump, often within the same song (such as on ‘Drain You’).
Dave Grohl is now 'the nicest guy in rock' or 'an embarrassing twat' depending who you ask, but as a new addition to the band, he really helps anchor this album. With his able backing vocals adding a little something extra to the mix, and of course his bombastic drumming. A drummer friend of mine once pointed out that Grohl is a great songwriting drummer. He doesn't play a million fills and hugely intricate parts, but what he plays locks into and complements the songs. A lot of his parts for this album if you heard them in isolation you'd likely still be able to pick the song it came from.
The single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” launched the album, band and the newish ‘grunge’ genre into the commercial stratosphere. Arguably, here Cobain achieved his goal of mixing the Pixies, the Melvins and the Beatles, but his punk guilt was triggered by a feeling that the album was too polished and almost too successful. More successful than many of his influences (which is possibly one reason why he devoted a decent portion of Nirvana's high-profile MTV Unplugged show to covering other artists). With the next studio album 'In Utero' he would try and bring a bit more noisy punky squalor to proceedings.
