MORE BEATLES than Black Sabbath, Kurt's gathers the courage to record an acoustic ditty, discovering a hitherto-hidden gift for bittersweet melody.

DEBUTED AT Reading '92 and dedicated to Kurt's newborn daughter, this achingly beautiful statement of confusion and resignation closed 'In Utero' on an uneasy calm.

'...TEEN SPIRIT''S B-side is a squalling, nightmarish anthem, a spidery riff drawing tighter as Kurt screams 'She keeps it pumping straight to my heart', dark drug references abounding.

MORE ALIENATION, as Kurt - a most feminised rocker - sings of a girl smothered by her parents' unrealistic expectations, to a nagging, harmony-drenched crunch.

WITH A loping bassline half-inched from Killing Joke, 'CAYA' was hypnotic, heavy on 'radio-friendly sheen' - the sound of Nirvana stealthily seducing the mainstream.

COVERING PORTLAND punks The Wipers' gloomy alienation anthem for a 1990 session for Radio 1's John Peel, Kurt nods in respect to hero Greg Sage and unleashes a killer barb-wire guitar solo.

FRAGILE AND wracked, Kurt's 'last song' is a happy-sad acoustic strum clouded by child-like confusion and yearning, an odd, affecting, unforgettable and magic thing.

FREUD WOULD have had a field day with this lyric and its references to wombs, and suffocation, and love (the emotion), and Love (Courtney).

NAMED FOR an anti-depressant, 'Lithium''s tale of loneliness and disaffection chimed along to their sweetest tune yet, riding hard on that crucial quiet/loud dynamic.

THEIR DEBUT seven-inch, a limited pressing of 1000 on Seattle label Sub Pop: a metallic cover of Dutch psych-rockers Shocking Blue's bubblegum curio that's heavy, and heavily 'pop'.

MORE FREUDIAN angst, as Kurt howls of parasites, shit and suicide, over a chilling chainsaw-massacre riff. 'In Utero' at its brilliantly bleak best.

HEAVY SLUDGE riffage in extremis, over which Kurt snarls, 'You're in high school again' like that were the worst fate imaginable. 'And no recess!'.

KURT'S WHITE-TRASH roots show on this Melvins-esque stomp, the lyric dissecting grim, alcoholic realities of life in a trailer park. The sense of alienation is palpable.

BITING THE hand that feeds, a snarling, cynical Kurt counts the profits and costs of stardom and notes, 'Teenage angst has paid off well'. He doesn't sound happy about it.

KURT'S SINGALONG howl of 'Grandma take me home!' touches on childhood terror of abandonment. The fusion of melody and distortion coined the 'Nevermind' blueprint.

THE SONG that sold a million plaid shirts - a razor-sharp riff, intriguing lyrics and a chord change stolen from Boston's 'More Than A Feeling' swiftly make Nirvana the biggest band in the world.

PROVING THEY could still bare their fangs, this was one of 'Nevermind''s three balls-out hardcore thrashes, a chaotic, revving, vaguely pro-feminist anthem.

KURT SINGS Bowie's haunting song of winning the world but losing your soul like it was his own, closing out with a glorious, sad, eloquent guitar solo.

HIDDEN AT the end of 1993's AIDS charity compilation 'No Alternative', this keening blast of melancholic pop mused subtly on patriarchal society via a doomed love song.

CLOSING THEIR landmark unplugged session, Kurt's take on bluesman Leadbelly's murder ballad is so wracked and from-the-heart it'll leave you with an unshakeable chill.