10 Best Live Rock Albums

As Nirvana released their third album In Utero, Kurt Cobain was not in the best of spirits. Completely jaded about the band's success, Cobain had started to turn to heroin to sooth his back pain and become numb every day. While on the mammoth tour to promote the new record, the band scheduled an MTV Unplugged appearance and turned their music on its head.

Throughout the evening, Cobain's writing is much more exposed, as he tears through songs like "Dumb" and "Come As You Are" like a wounded dog crying for help. Tracks like "All Apologies" and "Pennyroyal Tea" have torturous undercurrents in their presentation, yet have a certain glimmer to their sound that make them incredibly captivating. The band also makes the most of their cover tunes, amplifying David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World" to grand proportions and even exposing more obscure acts like on the Meat Puppets' songs "Oh Me" and "Lake of Fire."

While this performance was certainly a career highlight, the band couldn't bask in the glory for long as Cobain would commit suicide only months after the recording. As such, MTV Unplugged in New York shows Nirvana as an authentically raw band and gives the world one final glimpse into the complex artistry of Kurt Cobain.