Nirvana's 10 Best Songs, Ranked

Nirvana was one of the biggest bands of the 90s, and their popularity lives on to this day. While Metallica took over the world with heavy metal, Nirvana lifted grunge out of the underground and into the mainstream. Headed by frontman Kurt Cobain, the group was able to make a permanent stamp on their genre with basically just three albums. While some of their songs were controversial (such as "Rape Me"), many of their tracks can still resonate with a wider audience who don't even listen to alternative and grunge rock all that often. Perhaps the band didn't have the variety of groups like Led Zeppelin or The Beatles, but they still had a compelling emotional range—from heavy, aggressive blasts to sensitive acoustic pieces. Fans are surely aware of Nirvana's classic MTV Unplugged performance.

When looking for the band's top ten songs, there's a handful of pretty obvious choices. But there are also some pieces that feel like they could have made the list on a different day. "School" has a nice riff, "Love Buzz" has a cool bassline, "Breed" is addictively propulsive, "Stay Way" has a playful verse and another terrific bass (Krist Novoselic's work is one of the most consistently impressive elements of the band's repertoire), and "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" kind of sounds like a grungy Bob Dylan. Then there's the acoustic "Something in the Way," whose moodiness and melancholy cello is hard to shake off. Regarding the ones that did make the top ten, they demonstrate the vigor of Nirvana's strongest hooks, the unnerving quality of Cobain's lyrics, and the band's ability to capture the darker elements of the human experience.

10 "Sifting"

'Bleach'

This may be a weird choice, but look; we've got to give a little acknowledgment to the first record. "Sifting" is from 1989's Bleach, Nirvana's strong debut LP, and it's arguably the most nuanced track on it. This starts off with a simple riff that can feel just as at home on a heavy metal record, but then comes a very interesting change of rhythm in the chorus. "Don't have nothing for you!" is repeated with much more enthusiasm. It's catchy in a way that's maybe more common on the subsequent two records

Then there's that purposely off-kilter solo. Having any guitar solo is much appreciated, but this one is very cool. Playing off the riff and rhythm of the verse, the guitar here is more intriguingly unpredictable than the ones found in the other entries on this list. There comes a point where one almost thinks the solo is over, only to realize it's not; the guitar has simply blended in with its surroundings in a strange, mesmerizing camouflage of raw anger. This is fearless underground grunge at its finest.

9 "Scentless Apprentice"

'In Utero'

"Scentless Apprentice" definitely has one of Nirvana's best beats. Dave Grohl amps things up, but what brings the song together is that riff. The guitar takes on this sort of whine, and then drops down to a simple but heavy and fast-paced series of power chords. The tone of this one makes it among Nirvana's most consistently aggressive-sounding tracks. The energy just never lets up.

In the mood for some screaming? Then "Scentless Apprentice" is just the tune for you, as Cobain's gravelly voice is in full force here. The vocals have a very unpolished, garage-band sound to them that's very much intentional. Just when you thought it was hard to understand Cobain during the riff, he practically screams through the chorus. But whether you can understand the words or not shouldn't make much of a difference; all you really need to do here is feel the fury.

8 "Dumb"

'In Utero'

Nirvana can be just as compelling with an acoustic guitar as with an electric. "Dumb" is short and has a very simple structure, but it's a number that really leaves a bigger impression than you expect. Though the verse doesn't have much of a melody and can feel repetitive, there are two rebuttals: 1) that may very well be the point (since the lyrics describe someone who's dumb) and 2) each verse doesn't last very long.

What makes the song great is that surprisingly moving chorus. The cello adds a darkly sad aesthetic that provides a perfect contrast to the narrator saying "I think I'm just happy." A song about someone being happy usually wouldn't sound like this in most artists' hands, but Kurt Cobain wasn't most artists. Along with a bridge that adds some very welcome variety to the mix, these two and a half minutes manage to give us a sense of tragedy.

7 "All Apologies"

'In Utero'

The melodic opening to "All Apologies" sets the tone of a song that definitely leans on the sadder side. Even in the heavier chorus, it feels much more like a cry of pain than of anger. This isn't the most complex of NIrvana's songs, but it definitely evokes in the listener a feeling that everyone has had at some time in their lives. The cello adds just enough to the tone, yet another excellent example of that instrument on In Utero.

In this writer's opinion, this song could have used a solo. But instead it opts for a rather long outro in which Cobain repeats the same lyrics ("All in all is all we are") over and over. The band grows lower and lower in volume until it finally fades with the feedback of a microphone. To be fair, that's both lyrically and musically a compelling demonstration of teenage and young-adult angst.

6 "In Bloom"

Nevermind

"In Bloom" explodes right out of the gate with some big power chords and drums. Then we transition into the equally heavy riff, which contrasts nicely with the cleaner guitar and near-whispered delivery of Cobain's lyrics in the verse. The chorus brings the energy from the intro back with full force, and the hoarse screaming from Cobain is some of his best.

It's thrilling to hear the bass so pronounced as it plays the verses, and it's great how the song escalates in intensity from the beginning of the verse through the post-chorus. The guitar solo here is short but solid, foregoing speed for a rough, atmospheric approach. Even if one knows not what the lyrics are supposed to mean, fans who want to blast Nirvana at high volume are always satisfied with "In Bloom."

5 "Lithium"

'Nevermind'

Crazy narrators make such compelling voices—in film, in literature, and certainly in music. These are some of Cobain's best lyrics, paired with one of his greatest vocal deliveries: the way he opens with "I'm so happy. 'Cause to-daaay I found my friends. They're in my head," successfully puts us in the calmly disturbed head-space of someone who's losing his mind. It gets even more troubling when he says he's so ugly, "but that's okay 'cause so are you."

The song begins chill enough on a tonal level, but this unreliable voice apparently talking to himself gives this song a unique, disorienting energy that inevitably leads to a much heavier chorus. These can be bursts of rage, bursts of joy. For someone like this, what's the difference? Along with an outro in which he tells this "you" that he's not gonna crack, we get one of Nirvana's most interesting expressions of loneliness.

4 "Come As You Are"

'Nevermind'

One of Nirvana's greatest riffs is definitely the one in "Come As You Are," played quickly enough to propel the song's momentum before Grohl's drums have even kicked in. And the tone; it kind of sounds like we're underwater, sinking further down into a darkening abyss. Cobain keeps his voice on the raspy side throughout the whole verse, exchanging that tone for something a little smoother for the chorus. Both work very well, as does his work during the bridge.

"Come As You Are" is another winner with a simple structure. The guitar solo is very repetitive, yet it's more about holding on to this dark and somewhat uneasy mood than calling attention to itself. "Come As You Are" never dials down the energy, yet it also never ramps up the intensity much either. Along with some of Cobain's most poetic lyrics, this song makes one feel both calm and strangely unsettled at the same time.

3 "Heart-Shaped Box"

'In Utero'

Some Nirvana songs really depend on the hook to be memorable, as the verse can feel a bit one-note. "Heart-Shaped Box" is not one of them, as the verse here marries one of the band's greatest riffs with one of Cobain's greatest melodies. His singing is very restrained throughout the verse, only to go in the opposite direction for the chorus. Grohl's percussion supports that beautifully, as those moments in-between Cobain's vocals in the verse sound like something sinister knocking at the door.

Nirvana's tonal juxtaposition between the verse and chorus is hardly ever better, and the band's ability to segue from one to the other without it feeling too jarring is an impressive accomplishment. The solo is very short, as is usually the case with this group, but it's still a seamless transition that briefly picks up the intensity before dialing things down for the final verse. With lyrics that are just as odd and atmospheric as usual, "Heart-Shaped Box" is a Nirvana classic.

2 "You Know You're Right"

'Nirvana'

"You Know You're Right" was Cobain's final masterpiece, and its posthumous release was plagued with a lawsuit, leaks, delays, etc. The song was finally put out officially as a single in 2002, and would also feature on the band's greatest hits album that same year. One can certainly say that the song's power rivals (even surpasses) the drama leading up to its release. The intro is so ominous, and the guitar that follows builds up momentum.

When Cobain sings, we can infer that this is going to be another song with a soft verse and heavy chorus. The verse builds in intensity, leading to exactly that. Cobain's voice explodes with "pain" just as much as the guitars, and his vocal performance here ranks as perhaps his most powerful. You can hardly find a better musical evocation of inner suffering, and it's heartbreaking to know this was one of his final recordings in the studio.

1 "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

'Nevermind'

Despite all of Nirvana's other material, it's still hard to put any of the band's other songs above the legendary "Smells Like Teen Spirit." This was their breakout single, and we can still hear why to this day. While songs like "Heart-Shaped Box" have a great verse and somewhat slower pace, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" feels quite active even when it's in a simmering phase.

With an unforgettable guitar-driven intro and Grohl's exciting drums, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" enraptures fans from the start. Novoselic's bass in the verse feels so essential to this song's shadowy aesthetic, and the return of that intro's riff for the chorus melds perfectly with Cobain's shouted delivery. While the solo follows the vocal melody, it provides a fresh tone that fits in with its surroundings while escalating the emotional tenor. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" song has a little more complexity than most of Nirvana's other greats, yet the band handles it all with total control and confidence. Even after it's over, this teenage anthem of the 90s and its eerily obscure lyrics continue to thrash around in your head.

Nirvana: Unplugged In New York

Release Date December 16, 1993

Runtime 66 minutes

Director Beth McCarthy-Miller

Producers Joel Stillerman