Nirvana – Incesticide (180g)

Nirvana's Incesticide arrived in December 1992, just over a year after Nevermind, and it tells a different story from that breakthrough album. Rather than another polished studio statement, this was Nirvana's first compilation: a 15-track set of non-album singles, B-sides, demos, covers, and BBC sessions that also helped head off the growing trade in bootlegs. It remains one of the clearest snapshots of the band's pre-superstardom range, with Kurt Cobain's own cover painting underlining how personal the release felt.

What makes Incesticide so rewarding is the way it pulls together the different sides of Nirvana without smoothing them out. Songs like “Sliver” and “Dive” sit beside noisier, more unruly material, while “(New Wave) Polly” recasts a familiar song in a harsher, plugged-in form. Across the album you hear the mix of punk abrasion, pop instinct, indie looseness, and BBC-session immediacy that shaped the band before and around Nevermind.

That roughness is really the point. Incesticide has often been valued not as a stopgap, but as a truer picture of Nirvana's character: less streamlined, more underground-minded, and full of the contradictions that made the band compelling in the first place. For anyone who loves the group beyond the obvious classics, it's an essential companion piece.

Features

• 180g vinyl

Reviews

• Incesticide embodies the free space of punk more than any Nirvana album – Pitchfork