Description
Nirvana – Incesticide – Double 180 Gram Vinyl Records
25th Anniversary
45 RPM
Incesticide (1992) by Nirvana occupies a unique and often misunderstood place in the band’s catalog. Released in December 1992, at the height of Nirvana’s sudden global fame following Nevermind, the album is not a traditional studio effort but a compilation of B-sides, BBC sessions, demos, and previously hard-to-find tracks recorded between 1988 and 1991. What might have easily been a contractual stopgap instead became an essential document of the band’s raw identity—capturing their volatility, humor, vulnerability, and underground roots in a way that their more polished studio albums sometimes obscure.
To understand Incesticide, it’s important to place it in context. By late 1992, Nirvana had gone from Sub Pop cult favorites to international rock icons. Nevermind had transformed alternative rock into a mainstream force, and demand for any new Nirvana material was overwhelming. Bootlegs and imported singles were circulating widely, especially in Europe. Rather than allow their early recordings to be poorly represented through unofficial channels, the band and their label assembled Incesticide to gather this scattered material into a cohesive release. The result feels less like a commercial product and more like a time capsule—preserving the scrappy, restless energy of Nirvana’s formative years.
Musically, Incesticide is startling in its range. It swings from abrasive punk blasts to delicate, almost tender pop structures. “Dive,” recorded during the Nevermind sessions, features thick, sludgy bass and churning guitars, bridging the heavier aesthetic of Bleach with the sharper clarity of their breakthrough. “Sliver,” originally released as a single in 1990, stands out as one of Kurt Cobain’s purest pop constructions—simple, catchy, and slightly off-kilter, with a childlike perspective that feels both humorous and unsettling. Meanwhile, “Aneurysm” explodes with manic intensity, its stop-start dynamics and shouted vocals embodying Nirvana’s ability to weaponize tension.
The BBC sessions included on the album—recorded for John Peel—are particularly revealing. These versions of “About a Girl” and “Polly” strip the songs to their essentials, highlighting Cobain’s melodic instincts. “About a Girl,” often cited as evidence of Cobain’s Beatles influence, sounds almost fragile in this setting, while “Polly” becomes even more chilling in its simplicity. These performances reinforce the idea that beneath the distortion and chaos, Nirvana were fundamentally a band of strong songwriters.
One of the defining features of Incesticide is its overt connection to the underground indie and punk scenes that shaped Nirvana’s ethos. The inclusion of covers such as The Vaselines’ “Molly’s Lips” and “Son of a Gun,” along with Devo’s “Turnaround,” reflects Cobain’s deep admiration for outsider and post-punk artists. Rather than distance themselves from their influences at the peak of fame, Nirvana foregrounded them, almost defiantly. It was a reminder that their mainstream success hadn’t erased their subcultural allegiance.
Lyrically and emotionally, the album oscillates between sarcasm, anger, and vulnerability. Cobain’s voice—often cracked, sneering, or strained—feels intimate and unfiltered. Tracks like “Been a Son” tackle gender expectations with sharp irony, while “Hairspray Queen” and “Mexican Seafood” revel in abrasive absurdity. The sequencing contributes to the album’s chaotic charm; it doesn’t flow like a carefully constructed narrative but rather like flipping through fragments of a restless creative mind.
The artwork, drawn by Cobain himself, reinforces this sense of unsettling whimsy. The cover’s cartoonish yet grotesque imagery mirrors the music’s collision of innocence and discomfort. It’s playful on the surface, but there’s always something slightly off—a quality that defined Nirvana’s aesthetic as much as their sound.
Incesticide serves as a crucial bridge between Bleach, Nevermind, and the harsher textures of In Utero. It documents Nirvana before the full weight of fame set in, capturing them in a state of experimentation and instinct. The album may lack the thematic cohesion of their studio records, but its rough edges and tonal shifts are precisely what make it compelling. It shows a band that could be ferocious and melodic, crude and thoughtful, all within the span of a few tracks.
Far from being a mere compilation, Incesticide has become essential listening for understanding Nirvana’s full artistic spectrum. It preserves the messy vitality that fueled their rise and reminds listeners that their power lay not only in polished anthems but in the raw, imperfect bursts of creativity that defined their underground beginnings.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Dive
Sliver
Stain
Been A Son
Turnaround
Molly’s Lips
Son Of A Gun
(New Wave) Polly
Beeswax
Downer
Mexican Seafood
Hairspray Queen
Aero Zeppelin
Big Long Now
Aneurysm
