3 Acoustic Songs From the 1990s That Will Instantly Turn You Into a Fan of Grunge

Grunge music is known for its big, heavy sounds. It’s as if grunge bands tried to create avalanches of songs that began at some mountain peak and then crashed down upon their rabid, grunge-loving audiences.

Here below, though, we wanted to listen to grunge from a different angle. We wanted to highlight the lighter side of the hefty genre. Indeed, these are three acoustic songs from the 1990s that will instantly turn you into a fan of grunge.

“Would?” by Alice In Chains from ‘Unplugged’ (1996)

In many ways, grunge music is synonymous with tragedy. Perhaps no song makes that reality more clear than “Would?” by Alice in Chains. Not only does the track sound dark, eerie, and melancholy, but it was born out of the loss of life. In Seattle, where grunge was born, many of the city’s musical heroes passed away too young. Among them was Andrew Wood, who died just weeks before his band Mother Love Bone’s debut LP was released. To pay tribute to him, AIC wrote “Would?”. The song is an anthem to loss. And to hear it acoustic brings the pain of loss to another level.

“Alive” by Pearl Jam from ‘MTV Unplugged’ (1992)

For some reason, this song took 27 years to release. Recorded in 1992 for MTV’s famed Unplugged series, Pearl Jam and the music station never released a formal album until nearly three decades later. But it was worth the wait. On the 1992 work, Pearl Jam demonstrates that its hefty tunes can work in any environment. The band’s lead guitarist Mike McCready shines with an acoustic six-string. And the rest of the group rolls right along with him.

“All Apologies” by Nirvana from ‘MTV Unplugged In New York’ (1993)

You don’t have to be a grunge music aficionado to have heard this one. Of course, Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged recording is well known by even casual music fans. It’s perhaps their best album. It’s a collection of original songs and covers that show both the vastness of the group and its precise, identifiable sound. Though the band was only on the scene for a handful of years, their memory lives on thanks to recordings like the above.

Photo by Paul Bergen/Redferns