I wanted to say first that grunge was much more than just a musical genre. It was a movement, wrapped in flannel and lauded by misfits everywhere. It is why there is a church devoted to Kurt Cobain, and even though it was short-lived, it spawned many sub-genres that exist to this day. As always, these are 7 albums you should add to your collection, but they are not in any particular order. (Special mention goes to Alice in Chains’ Jar of Flies, Temple of the Dog, Silverchair’s Frogstomp, and the first Foo Fighters record.)
At first, I tried to dismiss Bush as a band that sounded like Pearl Jam and a lead singer that sounded like Kurt Cobain, but I was way too quick with my assessment. If you listen very closely to “Everything Zen,” you’ll hear what I finally heard too. Bush is a band that, sure, had an identity crisis, but their songwriting was clearly their own. There is no way Kurt Cobain would have written the lyric, “Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow. Dave’s on sale again.” You see, Bush was never about the introspection of Nirvana, or the wild angst of most other grunge. They were fuzz, plain and simple, but what good fuzz! And the best of it was right here, on 16 Stone, their first record. Standout song: Machinehead.
This is classic grunge right before grunge effectively died and gave way to many other forms of music. Indeed, this is Pearl Jam’s send-off to the genre that made them more famous than any band this side of Nirvana had any right to be. Eddie Vedder had the classic growl down, the band was louder than most, and the lyrics were as good as any written that year by any other lyricist. It’s no accident that this was the last really huge unit mover for Pearl Jam, either, because they did decide to go more introspective and less “grunge” after this point. Vs. is as solid as grunge gets. Standout song: Animal.
From start to finish, this album rumbles like a train down the grunge track. Chris Cornell’s voice was meant to growl, and the band was unlike any other in the Seattle scene at the time. Instead of incorporating themes of hating life, they sang about exploring what wasn’t there, plumbing the recesses of thought and possibility. “Hello. Don’t you know me? I’m the dirt beneath your feet. The most important fool you forgot to see” These lyrics from “Mailman” hint at the complexity I mentioned. Instead of hating the system, they were singing about ways to subvert the system because the system didn’t pay attention to them. It’s a classic album. Standout song: Spoonman.
4. Seven Mary Three – American Standard
One of those rare grunge bands that didn’t hail from Seattle, everything Seven Mary Three recorded was as layered as layered could get. Even the vocals from frontman Jason Ross are pretty layered in most songs they recorded at the beginning. They also had one of the most recognizable songs of the grunge era, “Cumbersome,” that was actually as good as its name, and made this album a must-have for any grunge aficionado. Standout song: Cumbersome.
As much as I can’t stand Courtney Love, her attitude, her life choices, and her major issues, I can’t help but think it is what has made her music all the more raw and heartwrenching. “Someday you will ache like I ache.” Each of Hole’s albums has this thread through it that makes you wonder why she has been able to survive all this time when others with the same types of issues have had bitter ends. Live Through This is a masterpiece of that push-pull dynamic that made grunge so popular. She was one of us, and when she sang, we felt. We still do, actually. Their latest album is just as raw. Standout song: Violet.
6. Stone Temple Pilots – Purple
I’m one of the few people who don’t think STP ever sounded like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or Soundgarden. From the start, I thought Scott Weiland’s voice evoked more of a David Bowie “devil-may-care” attitude and swagger that was missing from most grunge bands. STP was over-the-top in a way that was titillating and extreme, but still embraceable by those who understood. And understand we did. The DeLeo brothers are masterful with the loud sound of grunge, and mixed up more than ever on STP’s second album, Purple. It remains my favorite album from them for this and a myriad of other reasons. Standout song: The Lounge Fly.
![In Utero [Explicit]](https://i0.wp.com/ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wPgGQe-%2BL._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
Their final studio album showcases everything that made grunge so special, and outlined the area in bass relief, even before Kurt Cobain lost his battle with his demons. While Nevermind was a bombastic record, slick and studio-produced, and definitely radio-friendly in the era of grunge, In Utero was the middle finger to the world salute that I think Kurt Cobain always wanted to make. If you were a bandwagon fan, this was no Nevermind. This was not accessible to the masses, and he liked it that way. That’s also what made it a masterpiece. It was the grunge record that was truly grunge, no strings attached. When Kurt sang, “Hey, wait, I got a new complaint. Forever in debt to your priceless advice,” you realized you would be forever in debt to his priceless advice. Forget the poseurs. Be yourself. Easily the best album of the grunge era. Standout song: Heart Shaped Box.
Sam
Sam's Online Journal 
I guess your assuming everyone has Dirt in their collection, or else i don’t know how Dirt didn’t get mentioned on this list, hole isn’t a grunge band neither is STP or Bush(really? Bush though?) AiC put out better music than any of these bands, I guess deep, dark and brutally honest lyrics with complex, heavily distorted guitar play topped with the most emotional, haunting, and yet beautiful voice of Layne Staley is too complicated and not mediocre enough for most people. On days I’m looking to hear a mediocre singer with lyrics that are arguably catchy but without a doubt make no sense at all, with 3-power chord guitar play (very simple) I’ll turn to Nirvana. Best band on this list is Soundgarden, I completely agree superunknown deserves mention here, I having nothing against VS but I could also care less about that band post Andrew woods death (when they were mother love bone). In utero is nirvanas best album, but thats because bleach was too sloppy and nevermind was way too mainstream and dumbed down. I think I covered everything your list gets a D+, you can’t make a best of grunge anything without Alice In Chains especially when you have 3 bands that aren’t even a part of that genre, no matter how many people try and label them as grunge, they aren’t, simple as that.
Nice review, but the list is not a “best of.” I agree that Dirt is a wonderful record, by the way. As for the inclusion of bands you refer to as non-grunge, it is the sound, not the label that was important to me when compiling the list. Plus, it is simply my opinion. Thanks for sharing yours. Now I must put Dirt in the player this morning!
Haha sorry if I sounded too harsh that wasnt my intention, I was under the impression this was a “best of” STP had the grunge sound, I agree I only don’t consider them grunge because if you ask me grunge is just a code name for the “Seattle sound”. When you put it that way I withdraw my previous ranking of D+ and give it a B, like my previous post, it’s assumed we all have Dirt, Badmotorfinger, Core, and Nevermind and Ten in our library, call me biased I would have loved to see Facelift or the Self-Titled on here, good list though you should make a top 10 and include one of those two, Apple from mother love bone, temple of the dog and Above from mad season. That would be my personal top 10 only I never got into hole so I probably would replace that with maybe screaming trees or mudhoney. I’m unfamiliar with seven Mary three so that’s why I can neither object nor agree, good list bud.
Dirt is definitely understood, as are the other ones you mentioned here. Mudhoney is definitely also worthy of a “best of,” which I never thought of because I know best ofs are always scrutinized very closely. LOL. Mad Season was amazing too, and you have me listening to them again because of your comment, so thank you. Just so you know, I too think that Nirvana’s chord progressions were way too simple, but I think that was also one reason they appealed to the masses with Nevermind. I’d be interested to know what you think of the new Soundgarden record.
Haha nostalgia gets the best of all of us I was listening to mad season earlier that’s how I thought of that, I don’t hate Nirvana at all it’s just I feel they are a bit overrated I don’t think they are legendary at all but I do agree that people like them because they are a simple band with everyday guys ( then again what grunge band isn’t) I just feel that nevermind is their weakest album because it was toned down, made it have more of a mainstream sound. As for soundgarden a new album I enjoyed it, it was good to see them playing together again (I didn’t like Audioslave), I still prefer their older stuff, it’s just more original and they were in their prime back then, I felt the same way about black gives way to blue, only I enjoyed that less. I like the new singer a lot they couldn’t have found a better fill-in, but I feel they should have changed the name of the band, to me Alice in Chains died with Layne Staley…
Agrees on Audioslave and the recent AiC record. They should have changed the name. Not the same band (good music, though).