In many ways, "Nevermind" is a capital album. Without talking about the grunge movement, which is more circumstantial than stylistic, let's first talk about the band. "Nevermind" will reveal Nirvana, "Nevermind" will be Nirvana.
Nirvana, because of its independence from the rest of the rock/hardcore scene of the time, is immediately placed in the ranks of the protesters. The intellectuals who, since the punk defend a minimalist music, will praise this group which refuses with courage the "star system" and propel Nirvana and its leader Kurt Cobain to the front of a scene that they were fleeing at all costs.
And the record is a paradox. Used throughout the years as a standard of alternative and free rock, "Nevermind" is above all a narrow and stuck album. Stuck in a smooth and tasteless production behind a formatting that is to Nirvana's music what MP3 is to the sound of a record: a simplified version, which delivers only the main part while forgetting the essential. The paradox is also that of an album which will be a huge commercial success, and which will drain crowds not always desired at the feet of Kurt Cobain.
The album opens with the mega-hit 'Smell Like Teen Spirit', which slowly and massively bursts to burn everything in its path, and then fades away, like a fire that goes out. It's even a real agony since, apart from the surge of 'On A Plane', the album slowly declines to reach its twilight on a melancholic and disconcerting 'Something In The Way', where the defeated beast exhales its last breath on a background of violins. The anger is still there though. It is felt throughout the record, but without the power that "Bleach" brought. Cobain struggles behind a glass, in a straitjacket. The guitars are distant too, overdubbed and layered. The drums sound artificial and smooth.
And behind all that? In this sad packaging, the hits are aligned, unstoppable. The songs are solid. Heady vocal melodies, raging and brilliant riffs, relentless rhythm... All the talent of Cobain is expressed. They say that rock music died the day it was put in a museum. "Nevermind" is a stillborn, a miscarriage, an abortion. "Nevermind" will traumatize the musical landscape, and will kill its author.