Dirty

Butch Vig, fresh from Nevermind, moved to New York for about three months to make the record, and Andy Wallace mixed most of it. Eighteen tracks were completed. One of them, Ranaldo's Genetic, was cut from the album, which upset him, and it went on the 100% single along with Hendrix Necro. In an interview that December Gordon said Vig really knew what he was doing and was there to keep the recording straightforward. Ian MacKaye played guitar on Youth Against Fascism, Mike Kelley made the sleeve art and Richard Kern took the photographs.

Dirty reached number 6 in the UK, the band's best there, as well as 5 in New Zealand, 22 in Australia, 26 in Sweden and 83 in the US. The 100% single reached number 4 on the US Modern Rock chart, and Sugar Kane got to number 26 in the UK. Entertainment Weekly gave it an A and its album of the year, calling it possibly the finest hour from the band. Rolling Stone gave it four stars out of five, Pitchfork 8.6 and NME 9 out of 10.