Nirvana has a wealth of incredible songs that are easy to like. They also have a whole bunch of tunes that could be your favorite but aren’t quite as obvious.
It’s not hard to love “Heart-Shaped Box” or “About a Girl” or “Come as You Are” or any number of the band’s high-profile tracks. If you dig a little deeper, however, you’ll find a plethora of incredible Nirvana songs that deserve a place in the band’s “best of” conversation. Let’s look at just a few.
“Negative Creep” (Bleach)
A distilled example of 80s Seattle Grunge. Very chuggy and punky. You could almost call it post-crossover, given how it seeps with elements of bands like Suicidal Tendencies and Corrosion of Conformity.
Kurt Cobain really pushes his voice on the track, too. There are moments he almost sounds like a young Tom Araya from Slayer.
“Endless, Nameless” (Nevermind)
The last song on Nevermind, “Endless, Nameless”, is chaotic and captivating. It really seethes with heavy-Melvins influence, leaning away from grunge and more into sludge-noise.
Originally, the song was a hidden track that started after several minutes of silence following the end of “Something in the Way”. In later releases of Nevermind, however, it was given its own track.
According to band lore, this song was recorded live during a time when Kurt was very frustrated and angry. After one listen to the late rock frontman screaming his way through the song, you’ll easily pick up on that.
“Very Ape” (In Utero)
I think “Very Ape” is a really underrated Nirvana song. It has a killer riff that you have to listen closely to. It feels like something that helped spark the alt-rock explosion in the early 2000s. It’s obviously got that grungy element, but there’s no denying it has a real classic punk-garage rock vibe.
“Something in the Way (Live)” (MTV Unplugged in New York)
There was a time I would have been able to put this song on this list without any caveats. That time would have been before Matt Reeves’ The Batman film utilized it in the film’s marketing. I’m in no way criticizing this move. I think it’s great that the song got so much exposure all these years later, because it’s a phenomenal song.
This brings us to the acoustic version. To say it’s wildly different from the original would be an exaggeration, but it is a beautiful and compelling arrangement. It remains haunting, but more in a gothic way rather than ambient.
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