4. Nirvana All Apologies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWmkuH1k7uA Whilst Smells like teen spirit was the breakthrough for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana - as referenced
in the 80s article - it was the song that sounded like the Pixies. As wonderful as it was, it didnt tell the true story of his abilities as a songwriter, the real power that his band had, or that of his own tragic downfall. However All Apologies did this in spades, and never more perfectly than when they stripped it down for their MTV Unplugged appearance. At the time, here was a man who had the world at his feet musically and was a father to a young child, but who found himself so unhappy he couldnt see the point on being alive any more, all the danger signs were there in the song I hate myself and I want to die, but the real clue to his fate was to be found here. With his death, Grunge had found its very own Ian Curtis and in the words of his mother, Cobain had joined that stupid club. Said club was that which was populated by young musicians who had died tragically young and prematurely. But like the other members of said club, he left a raft of wonderful songs behind, of which this is arguably his masterpiece. All Apologies was a superbly minimal song, both in the repeated riff and the sparse lyrics of the chorus In the sun, in the sun I feel as one, in the sun, in the sun, married, buried, married, buried And what made it such a landmark was that it drew a line in the sand that grunge was all about noise, Nirvanas greatest skill was their ear for melody. It was the Love will tear us apart' of its generation - one of the bleakest songs ever written, and given the talent that was soon to depart the earth, was one of the saddest youll ever hear too.