Top 10 albums that defined grunge

In the early 90s a wave came out of Seattle that swept away the hairspray of Guns N' Roses and the long guitar solos. Grunge mixed the dirty sound of fuzz pedals, heavy riffs in the spirit of Black Sabbath and punk honesty. It was angry, vulnerable and played in flannel. We are counting down the ten albums the genre could not exist without, from number ten all the way to number one.

The most beautiful album of the whole scene came out of grief. Chris Cornell wrote the songs in memory of his roommate Andrew Wood, singer of Mother Love Bone, and recorded them with Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Mike McCready and drummer Matt Cameron.

The duet Hunger Strike is the first recording to feature the voice of Eddie Vedder. Temple of the Dog only became a hit a year later, once Pearl Jam and Soundgarden took over the world.

Fun fact: Vedder was in the studio only for a Pearl Jam audition. He sang the lower part of Hunger Strike almost by accident, helping Cornell out on the chorus.

An album that still lives in the shadow of one tragedy. Hole, fronted by Courtney Love, released it four days after Kurt Cobain was found dead. It sounds raw, yet the pop choruses simply will not leave your head.

Doll Parts, Violet and Miss World brought female rage and black humour into the genre. Critics named it record of the year and it opened the door for a whole wave of alternative bands fronted by women.

Fun fact: Bassist Kristen Pfaff died two months after the album came out. The backing vocals on two songs are still rumoured to be Cobain.

The most overlooked big band of the scene. Screaming Trees came from the small town of Ellensburg and their sound had a psychedelic 60s foundation. On top of it sat the baritone of Mark Lanegan, the finest storyteller of the whole scene.

The song Nearly Lost You made it onto the soundtrack of the film Singles and finally pushed the band onto the radio. The album proves grunge also had a melancholic, storytelling side.

Fun fact: The band started in the video rental store owned by the Conner brothers parents. Lanegan later formed Mad Season with Layne Staley and also sang with Queens of the Stone Age.

Without this EP grunge would not sound the way it does. Mudhoney rose from the remains of Green River, and Mark Arm with Steve Turner built the entire sound on distortion cranked into the red.

The song Touch Me I'm Sick became the anthem of Sub Pop and the record spent almost a year on the UK indie chart. Nirvana copied Mudhoney openly and opened for them in small clubs.

Fun fact: The title is really a gear list. It comes from the two fuzz pedals the band used, the Univox Super-Fuzz and the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff.

Stone Temple Pilots came from San Diego and critics first wrote them off as a Pearl Jam copy. Scott Weiland drowned out the accusations with pure frontman charisma and the band went all in on thick groove and glam swagger.

The debut delivered Sex Type Thing, Creep and above all Plush, which won the band a Grammy. Weiland later bridged scenes, guested on Significant Other by Limp Bizkit and sang in Velvet Revolver.

Fun fact: The band was originally called Mighty Joe Young and had to change the name shortly before the debut came out.

The Smashing Pumpkins were not from Seattle but from Chicago, and their second album runs on the opposite approach to the rest of the scene. Billy Corgan called in producer Butch Vig and layered electric guitars into dozens of tracks until he had a thick, dreamlike wall of sound.

Today, Disarm and Cherub Rock brought melody and orchestral ambition into the genre. Corgan wrote with a whole arsenal of guitar effects and the album is still a textbook on layering distortion without losing the tune.

Fun fact: Corgan recorded most of the guitar and bass parts himself instead of his bandmates. The sessions dragged on and blew the budget several times over.

The darkest album of the entire scene. Alice in Chains built their sound on the down-tuned, grinding riffs of Jerry Cantrell and on harmonies where his voice folded into the voice of Layne Staley.

The lyrics about addiction are raw to the point of discomfort. Them Bones, Rooster and Would? rank among the best things Seattle ever produced, and the album went four times platinum in the US. It sounds like metal but it feels like grunge.

Fun fact: Rooster was the nickname of Cantrell's father in Vietnam and the song is about him. Cantrell wrote Would? in memory of Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone.

Soundgarden were the most musical of them all. The voice of Chris Cornell had a range nobody in the genre could match, and guitarist Kim Thayil went for unusual tunings and odd time signatures.

The album entered Billboard at number one and delivered Black Hole Sun, Spoonman and Fell on Black Days. It won the band two Grammys and proved grunge could handle psychedelia and seven-eight time as well.

Fun fact: On Spoonman the spoons are really played by Seattle street performer Artis the Spoonman. Cornell later formed Audioslave with musicians from Rage Against the Machine.

The Pearl Jam debut grew out of the ashes of Mother Love Bone. Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament sent a demo tape out into the world and in San Diego it reached an unknown surfer named Eddie Vedder.

Vedder sang his lyrics over it, moved to Seattle and two years later the band was stacking platinum. Alive, Even Flow and Jeremy turned the album into one of the best selling rock debuts ever. In the US it passed thirteen million copies.

Fun fact: The title Ten refers to the jersey number of basketball player Mookie Blaylock. The band was originally named after him.

Number one and the zero hour of grunge in a single record. The second Nirvana album was produced by Butch Vig, who gave the dirty Sub Pop sound radio clarity. Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and new drummer Dave Grohl finished it in under a month.

Smells Like Teen Spirit changed the music industry in a matter of weeks. Come as You Are, Lithium and In Bloom turned the album into a generational statement, and in January 1992 Nevermind knocked Dangerous by Michael Jackson off the top of the US chart.

Fun fact: The baby floating on the cover is four-month-old Spencer Elden and his parents got 200 dollars for the shoot. Cobain never hid who he was copying, naming Pixies and Melvins. After his death Grohl started Foo Fighters.

Grunge is coming back in full force. The classic albums keep returning as remastered reissues on vinyl and CD, and a new generation buys flannel shirts to go with them. This is music that never pretended to be better than it was, and that is exactly why it still rings true.

If it got you, play it the way it is meant to sound. Build your collection on a turntable, tune the sound with proper headphones and top it off with merch of your favourites. For the next chapter, read our countdown of the albums that defined nu metal.