Scratch a Track: Music Review and Commentary Podcast · The Dude and Grimm Show

Is Nevermind by NIRVANA still a RELEVANT album?

·1 hr 5 min·4 clips

Nevermind arrived on September 24th, 1991, alongside Pearl Jam 10, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains.

Dude and Grim spend the episode asking whether Nevermind still matters. They start with the obvious point that the album hit hard in the 90s, then keep circling the better question of whether that influence still shows up in music and culture now. The talk keeps drifting toward new rock bands, with Geese coming up as one example of a group that still seems to carry some of that range of influence. That turns into a way of talking about legacy without pretending legacy and relevance are the same thing. They also spend time on the production side of the record. The doubled vocals come up as one of those choices that sounds easy in hindsight but probably needed a producer like Butch Vig to hear it as a fix instead of a problem. The hosts lean into that studio logic and make it part of the album's story. From there they move to the cover art, which they treat as controversial right away. The baby on the front of the album becomes a story of its own. They bring up the lawsuit the baby later filed against Kurt Cobain's estate. They are not subtle about what they think of it, calling it a bullshit money grab. The episode also nods to the Classic Albums DVD extras, where the now-grown man talks about the process and how he has lived with the image. That leads to a few jokes and some off-the-cuff memory lane riffing about how weirdly public that picture has become. The hosts even detour briefly into a side remark about Sinead O'Connor's death, which fits the show's loose, real-time way of moving around. They keep pulling the thread back to the record itself. By the end, they are not treating the album as untouched or sacred. They frame it more like something still worth arguing with. The closing question is simple: if you had to scratch the album, what would you remove? The whole thing lands on a mix of memory, studio talk, and blunt listener bait.

As heard by us

A Nirvana conversation that blends studio lore, cover-art history, and a debate over whether the album still matters.

Scratch the Track treats Nevermind less like a museum piece and more like a live argument. It keeps asking whether the album still lands now, especially as newer rock bands like Geese pull the discussion forward.

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Why you'd press play

You want to hear Nevermind argued like it still has something to prove, honestly.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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