'All Apologies' (1993)
'All Apologies' is almost a microcosm of a Nirvana track, with its quiet/loud pendulum swings, its ideal balance of punk and pop, its earnestly Kurt-like homophilia ("Everyone is gay") and its self-loathing made vivid and tactile ("Aqua seafoam shame"; "Found my nest of salt / Everything is my fault"). It even offered up a choice couplet for those many fans who lamented Cobain's connubial judgment ("I'm married / Buried"). 'All Apologies' was also, as it turned out, an exquisite and terribly sad valedictory from Cobain and for Nirvana, with MTV putting the acoustic version from the band's melancholy Unplugged performance into heavy rotation after Cobain's death in April 1994. They say that Generations X and Y lack rituals for death and mourning, but this rueful farewell is close to one. Whenever somebody dies, I play this song.