“In Bloom” by Nirvana

"In Bloom" sits second on Nirvana's Nevermind, the album DGC put out in September 1991, and it's the record in miniature: a sweet, sticky melody bolted onto a riff heavy enough to dent the floor. Kurt Cobain wrote it, and the band cut the Nevermind version at Sound City Studios in May 1991, producing it with Butch Vig while Andy Wallace handled the mix.

The song had an earlier life. Nirvana recorded a first version in 1990, while they were still on Sub Pop, and it surfaced only as a music video on the Sub Pop Video Network Volume 1 VHS tape. The Nevermind take is a different beast: Cobain's guitar grinds and chimes by turns, Krist Novoselic's bass lumbers along underneath, Dave Grohl pounds the kit like he's trying to get through it, and Grohl and Novoselic stack harmonies on the chorus that are almost Beatles-pretty, which is exactly what makes the heavy parts land so hard.

It became the album's fourth and final single in November 1992 and got heavy airplay across America, reaching No. 5 on the US Mainstream Rock chart even though it never came out as a physical single there. Kevin Kerslake directed a new video to go with it, and that clip won Best Alternative Video at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.