Indie label debut, major label smash, difficult follow-up: the three Nirvana studio albums released in Kurt Cobain’s lifetime tell a cautionary narrative about the ’90s alt-rock boom in themselves. But that final piece is the great refutation, a willfully ugly album that aimed to make every listener feel the same kind of emotional and even physical discomfort its frontman did. Albini’s knob-twists bring out the best in Grohl’s motorik/Bonzo-funk mode, Krist’s glop-bass smothering, and Kurt’s feedback-bleeding pinched-nerve riffs.

– Nate Patrin