Nirvana Album Recommendations: "Incesticide"

Album Recommendations: Incesticide

The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Nirvana

[#] Incesticide (1992)

A little something for everyone, even the freaks.

Reviewed November 18, 2024

One day, shortly after the band called Nirvana became The Band Called Nirvana, their former label Sub Pop calls up their new label DGC with an offer. "We have lots of unreleased Nirvana recordings, and we'll sell 'em to you for lots of money for you to make lots of money if you agree to release them." (Kurt agreed because he got full control over the artwork.) In some ways a stopgap between albums and in others a way to fight bootlegging, you'd expect a crassly commercial release like Incesticide to be gross, but it isn't—well, "Mexican Seafood" is—actually, it's quite good. This is Nirvana at both their poppiest and their most offputtingly experimental, capturing their essence in ways their proper albums couldn't.

Material stretching from their earliest studio sessions for Bleach to then-recent BBC sessions are featured here, presented in not really chronological order. Between the searingly repetitive twee-rock of "Sliver", two lovely sugary Vaselines covers and an even better Devo one for good measure, and an alternate version of the indie pop gem "Been a Son" from Blew, the first half of Incesticide really lays the catchy stuff on thick. The caustically sludgy Bleach outtakes in the back half is where folks might get lost, as Kurt tests the limits of his vocal range on "Hairspray Queen" or simply nauseates with his lyrical fixations on "Mexican Seafood". Uneven by design, the fact that this hits so often is proof there was nevertheless method to Nirvana's madness.