Nirvana Ranked: Their Best ’90s Albums (and ‘Bleach’)

Reading this Nirvana Ranked might rankle a segment of Nirvana fans. But once I explain how I went about it, you’ll get it. Hopefully.

I’m Adam 12, Program Director and on-air host here at ROCK 92.9 in Boston. You can hear me weekdays from 11 a.m. ’til 4 p.m. I started high school in ’91 and graduated college in ’99, so I spent my formative years in the ’90s. Credibility established.

That’s when I started my career in radio, too. So I consider myself a bit of an expert on the music of the era. I’ve recently shared rankings of Weezer‘s Blue Album and Purple from Stone Temple Pilots, going track-by-track through each one.

Nirvana Ranked: Methodology

I’m taking a different approach here, though. Instead of ranking the cuts on a specific Nirvana album, I’m ranking the actual albums. Which of course begs the comment and question: “12, they only have 3 albums. What’s the point?”

Yes, Nirvana has 3 studio albums. Which doesn’t make for a very exciting ranking. So I’m expanding my scope to include the band’s full-length releases from the ’90s. With two live albums and a compilation, I’ve now doubled the list.

Nirvana Ranked: From Best to…Best

As I state with all my rankings, this caveat: there is no “worst” on this list. Only “best.” So if your favorite Nirvana release lands in a low spot on my ranking, please don’t take it personally. “I celebrate their entire catalog,” to paraphrase the Bobs.

And to paraphrase D. Boon and Mike Watt, this is one reporter’s opinion. Mine. It reflects my own fandom and personal history with the band. Thanks for taking the time to read it. Hit me up between 11 and 4 during the week and let me know what you think.

• 6) ‘From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah’

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  This is an excellent live album. That's why Geffen Records decided to give it an official release. But here's the thing about live albums: they're even more polarizing than studio albums. And with a band like Nirvana, there are oodles of bootlegs floating around the internet that fans would put ahead of this live set. So I'm putting it in the bottom slot.

• 5) ‘Bleach’

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  If you were hip enough to have been a WFNX listener in the Boston area in the late '80s, you were lucky enough to hear Nirvana on the radio two whole years before they broke. Then-FNX Program Director Kurt St. Thomas was an early acolyte for the band, and "Love Buzz" was in rotation in '89. It's a fine debut album. But it's the band in their nascency. Bigger, better things (and songs) were still to come.

• 4) ‘Unplugged in New York

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  There are Nirvana fans that would put this album at the top of their own personal list. I wouldn't blame them. It's a watershed performance and one of if not the best entry in the 'MTV Unplugged' catalog. But to put it ahead of Nirvana's two big studio albums just wouldn't sit right with me.
• 3) ‘In Utero’

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  The third and final Nirvana studio album is their third-best album overall in my ranking. Wild, right? I didn't see this coming. I mean, this is the Steve Albini-produced masterpiece that was the most highly-anticipated album of 1993 and one of the most highly-anticipated albums of the '90s. I almost put it ahead of 'Nevermind.' Then Id didn't.

• 2) ‘Nevermind’

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  There's really nothing to say about this album that hasn't already been said. It's Nirvana's breakthrough moment. It's an era-defining, genre-defining, generation-defining masterpiece. So why isn't it in the No. 1 slot? Well, that would be predictable, right? And who wants predictable? Besides, it gets slightly dinged in the standings because of assholes like me who've played the songs on the radio too many damn times.

• 1) ‘Incesticide’

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  "He's doing a bit, right? This one is No. 1?" Yes and no. Yes in that it's much more fun to put something unpredictable in the top slot on a list like this. No in that I truly believe this to be Nirvana's best moment. It's a hodgepodge of B-sides, sessions, and rarities that somehow hangs together as a cohesive album. And it does the best job of demonstrating to a Nirvana noob what the band was all about, sonically. It's Nirvana's past, present, and future all in one convenient release. So I say it's Numero Uno.