| Nirvana | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greatest hits album by Nirvana | ||||
| Released | October 29, 2002 | |||
| Recorded | 1988–1994 | |||
| Genre | Grunge, alternative rock | |||
| Length | 49:38 | |||
| Label | DGC | |||
| Producer | Steve Albini, Jack Endino, Steve Fisk, Scott Litt, Butch Vig | |||
| Nirvana compilations chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Nirvana (album) | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Blender | [2] |
| Pitchfork | (7.0/10) [3] |
| Rolling Stone | [4] |
Nirvana is a "best-of" compilation album by the American grunge band Nirvana, released in October 2002.
The album opened at #3 on the Billboard 200 with 234,000 copies sold. Currently, it has sold 6 million copies worldwide. It has sold nearly 2.2 million copies in the United States, according to Soundscan, and has sold more than 2 million copies in Europe as of 2007. [5]
Contents |
Nirvana was the third Nirvana album to be released following the death of singer/ guitarist Kurt Cobain in April 1994, and the first to feature studio material. It contains the previously unreleased "You Know You're Right", a song recorded during the band's final studio session, in January 1994. The album also includes a selection of the band's more popular songs, pulled mostly from 1991's Nevermind and 1993's In Utero, but also containing three pre-Nevermind songs and two songs recorded during the band's MTV Unplugged set in November 1993.
The album contains liner notes by music journalist David Fricke.
Nirvana was released following the settlement of a long-standing legal dispute between Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, and surviving Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl. Much of the dispute centered around "You Know You're Right", which Novoselic and Grohl had wanted to release on a long-delayed Nirvana box set. However, Love blocked the song's release, and sued Novoselic and Grohl over control of Nirvana's legacy.
Love's lawsuit maintained that "You Know You're Right" was a "potential 'hit' of extraordinary artistic and commercial value."[6] She believed that "You Know You're Right" would be "wasted" on a box set, and instead belonged on a single-disc compilation similar to the Beatles' 1.[7] In September 2002, it was announced by the Nirvana camp that the lawsuit had been settled, and that "You Know You're Right" would be released on "Nirvana, a one-CD history of the band."[8]
Several critics believed that Nirvana was too brief, and omitted key tracks. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote that "the presence of a few more tracks, along with placing "You Know You're Right" at the end where it belongs, would have made this collection not just stronger, but possibly definitive. As it stands, it feels like a bit of a cheap compromise and a wasted opportunity." [9] Will Bryant of Pitchfork praised the album as "an artful selection of the band's most seminal material," but also dismissed it as "a party mix for parents who want to appreciate Cobain's Lennon-esque knack for great melodies without having to click past "Scentless Apprentice" or "Territorial Pissings"...utterly inoffensive: an impulse buy from Columbia House, perhaps, with no more artistic value than The Eagles' Greatest Hits or the Beatles' 1." [10]
All songs written and composed by Kurt Cobain (unless otherwise noted).
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "You Know You're Right" (previously unreleased) | 3:38 |
| 2. | "About a Girl" (from Bleach) | 2:49 |
| 3. | "Been a Son" (from Blew) | 2:23 |
| 4. | "Sliver" (from Incesticide) | 2:14 |
| 5. | "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (from Nevermind - Cobain/Grohl/Novoselic) | 5:01 |
| 6. | "Come as You Are" (from Nevermind) | 3:39 |
| 7. | "Lithium" (from Nevermind) | 4:17 |
| 8. | "In Bloom" (from Nevermind) | 4:15 |
| 9. | "Heart-Shaped Box" (from In Utero) | 4:41 |
| 10. | "Pennyroyal Tea" (from In Utero, single remix) | 3:38 |
| 11. | "Rape Me" (from In Utero) | 2:51 |
| 12. | "Dumb" (from In Utero) | 2:34 |
| 13. | "All Apologies" (from MTV Unplugged in New York) | 3:51 |
| 14. | "The Man Who Sold the World" (from MTV Unplugged in New York - David Bowie) | 3:47 |
| Bonus tracks | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 15. | "Something in the Way" (from MTV Unplugged in New York - appears on vinyl and Japanese CD copies only) | 4:01 | |||||||
| 16. | "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"" (from MTV Unplugged in New York - Traditional; arranged by Lead Belly - appears on vinyl and non US CD copies only) | 5:08 | |||||||
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Australian Albums Chart[11] | 1 |
| 2002 | Austrian Albums Chart[12] | 1 |
| 2002 | Switzerland Albums Chart[13] | 2 |
| 2002 | Belgium (NL) Albums Chart[14] | 2 |
| 2002 | New Zealand Albums Chart[15] | 2 |
| 2002 | Canadian Albums Chart[16] | 2 |
| 2002 | USA Billboard 200[17] | 3 |
| 2002 | UK Albums Chart[18] | 3 |
| 2002 | Norwegian Albums Chart[19] | 5 |
| 2002 | Denmark Albums Chart[20] | 6 |
| 2002 | Italian Albums Chart[21] | 6 |
| 2002 | Japanese Oricon Albums Chart[22] | 6 |
| 2002 | Finland Albums Chart[23] | 9 |
| 2002 | Sweden Albums Chart[24] | 10 |
| 2002 | Holland Albums Chart[25] | 12 |
| 2002 | Spanish Albums Chart[26] | 28 |
| Preceded by One by One by Foo Fighters |
Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album November 4–10, 2002 |
Succeeded by The Best of 1990–2000 by U2 |
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