Nirvana: Worst to Best

It's not that the songs included on Sliver: The Best of the Box are bad -- they're not. In fact, they are indeed the best tracks from the expansive Lights Out box set. The real reason this album ranks last on our list of Nirvana records is that its release feels like a greed-driven maneuver designed specifically to rip-off fans hungry for new material.

Even with the few unreleased tracks -- ones that should have been included on Lights Out -- it still reeks of a double-dip. And that's just the kind of thing that would have completely disgusted Kurt Cobain.

This self-titled recording, a compilation released in October 2002, was the first album after Kurt Cobain's death to include studio-recorded material. The previously unreleased track, "You Know You're Right," was lifted from Nirvana's final studio session in January 1994.

Nirvana debuted at #3, and has since sold more than 6 million copies, yet it is not widely regarded as a favorite among the band's most devoted fans. The problem is that it's hard to condense Nirvana's entire catalog down to an album's worth of material. Sure, you can lump all of their hits together, but that can't define a group like Nirvana. It's a totally enjoyable listen, but artistic considerations appear to have been cast aside in favor of commercial success.

We don't typically include box sets in lists like this, but With the Lights Out is such a unique sampling of this prolific band's second-tier work that it demands notice. While some fans have leveled legitimate accusations at the set for being bloated, ill-conceived, and sloppily assembled, it still contains enough of Cobain's brilliant artistry to legitimize its existence.

With 68 previously unreleased tracks, it's hard to compare this collection with Nirvana's other releases. There's so much material here, but much of it is of questionable quality. Cutting through the muck, however, are gems like "If You Must," "Blandest," as well as a number of poignant solo tracks by Cobain.

Released on October 1, 1996, From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah was the second Nirvana record to street after the death of Kurt Cobain. It is a live release, and essentially an antidote to the previous Unplugged album, as it contains mainly harder and faster songs -- versions of their traditional hits like "Lithium," "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Heart-Shaped Box" and more.

From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah went to number one on the Billboard 200. And although it did not ultimately perform as well commercially as the massively popular Unplugged album, it became Nirvana's sixth platinum album since 1991.

Nirvana had changed the music world with their major label debut, establishing themselves as a particularly unique rock band and popularizing the grunge sound. Then, on December 14, 1993, they did it again. That's when the band's now legendary MTV Unplugged performance first aired on said cable network. A year later, seven months after Kurt Cobain's death, an Grammy-winning album with recordings from the performance was released.

For the Unplugged set, Nirvana eschewed their greatest hits -- save for "Come as You Are" -- and played mostly cover songs or little-known tracks instead. "About a Girl," a song originally appearing on the group's first record, became a hit single. The Unplugged session showed off the band's ability to transcend their genre, and made Nirvana accessible to an even wider audience.

Incesticide is Nirvana's first compilation album, released on December 14, 1992. It consists mainly of older rarities -- radio recordings, demos, and outtakes. Six of the tracks were previously unreleased.

Most of the material on the Incesticide was already being passed around the fanbase in lower-quality bootleg form. The band put out this album to give fans more listenable versions -- though Cobain's motivation was, at least in part, related to the fact that he was given total control over the album art.

It wasn't heavily promoted -- the record label was worried about burnout -- but still debuted at 51 on the Billboard 200 and sold half a million copies in the first two months of release.

The group's first indie album, Bleach, was recorded for 600 bucks. And while Cobain frequently claimed that he was not particularly attached to/fond of any of the album's lyrics -- "I didn't give a flying f*** what the lyrics were about," he once told Spin -- it's packed with the kind of angsty subject matter that the band would become known for. "Mr. Moustache" is all about Cobain's disdain for tough guys, and the Seattle music scene gets dissed on "School."

Bleach, released on Seattle-based Sub Pop, only sold around 30,000 copies upon initial release. But it was solid enough to land the band a big-time record deal with DCG. Many fans discovered this debut work in the wake of Nirvana's later commercial success -- it went platinum. This is Nirvana, in a sense, before they were what the music world now regards as Nirvana. Conversely, you could consider it Nirvana at their purest.

The band's third album, In Utero, was released in 1993, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart and with a harder sound than the hugely successful Nevermind.

While it was not as big as that album in terms of sales, that's just how the band wanted it. They were going for authenticity and not commercial success. Even so, In Utero garnered a positive reception from fans and critics alike and, ultimately, went 5x platinum, driven largely by the heavily played singles "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies."

In Utero stands as the band's boldest work. Sadly, it would be the last studio album from Nirvana or Cobain. Seven months after its release, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle.

Nevermind was a come-out-of-nowhere super-hit when it dropped on Geffen in 1991. Spurred on by the indelible "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the LP supplanted Michael Jackson on the top of the charts within a few months of its release, made alt rock (oxymoronically) into mainstream rock, and to this day remains a universally praised piece of music. Displacing the King of Pop was symbolic of what Nirvana and the grunge movement were all about -- the search for something that felt more authentic, gritty, and real.

Subsequent singles "Come as You Are," "Lithium," and "In Bloom" would propel the record to multi-platinum status (it's since gone 10x over). And Nevermind would go on to be regarded among the greatest albums of all time.