When Nirvana coalesced (Cobain on guitar and vocals, Krist Novaselic on bass, Chad Channing on drums) and released its first album, Bleach, in 1988, the band had already progressed to something beyond punk. Recorded for a mere $600, the album sounded as good as anything could for that amount of m... 

 Picking up drummer Dave Grohl and jumping from Sub Pop to major-label Geffen, where the band notched up the sonics to A-level with producer Butch Vig, Nirvana delivered the killer hook on “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Nevermind’s first single proved to be the song of the decade. Overnight, the... 

 Rather than wait for the followup to the massive success of Nevermind, Geffen collected outtakes and demos and released them as Incesticide, in 1992. Cobain’s singing generally lacks the depth he achieved on Bleach and Nevermind, and the killer hooks were simply more standard punk fare. Not bad... 

 In Utero, produced by Steve Albini, shows Cobain careening wildly between screaming dissonance, with all the needles in the red (“Scentless Apprentice”), and the irresistible hooks that made Nevermind a masterpiece (“Heart-Shaped Box,” “All Apologies”). The dissonance outweighs the me... 

 Amid reports of Cobain's heroin problem and suicide attempts, Nirvana recorded its second masterpiece, Unplugged in New York, in December 1993. Perhaps it's a cliché: The true test of a song is that if it sounds just as good with an acoustic guitar as it does with a band bashing ... 

 The 1996 live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wiskah features live cuts spanning 1986-1994. And while the quality of the performances ranges, it’s fascinating to hear Nirvana’s growth from a scrappy stoner-punk band into a mainstream phenomena.  

 But it is With the Lights Out that offers an essential look into Cobain’s evolution as a songwriter. The three-CD/one-DVD box (also available as the pared-down version, Silver) features solo acoustic demos and studio outtakes spanning 1987-1994. It’s not angst: Cobain experiments with pitch-s... 

 But it is With the Lights Out that offers an essential look into Cobain's evolution as a songwriter. The three-CD/one-DVD box (also available as the pared-down version, Silver) features solo acoustic demos and studio outtakes spanning 1987-1994. It's not angst: Cobain experiments with p... 

 While Cobain didn’t leave much unreleased music behind, there was enough to cobble together a few must-have releases. The remaster of Nirvana’s debut comes packaged with a surprisingly crisp live recording of a 1990 show from Portland, Oregon.  

 For the total live experience, however, it doesn’t get much better than the 2009 release Live at Reading, captured at the British music festival in 1992–the peak of “Teen Spirit” mania. The band doesn’t sound quite overwhelmed by their newfound fame: “Aneurysm” is a four-minute rush...