New York Magazine described "Lithium" as a "flawlessly crafted hit." AllMusic's Mark Demming remarked, "For all the sound and fury of Nirvana's epochal album, Nevermind, it's significant that the album's best and most affecting song is also among the quietest. ... The liberating force of Nirvana's inspired anger was rarely more powerful than in the service of this song." Time music critic Christopher Farley praised the song for its "gorgeous guitar hooks," writing, "Its punk-inspired, we-couldn't-care-less ethos seemed to reflect the restless apathy some young people felt toward their times." "Lithium" was ranked the 20th best single of the year in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, tying with singles by Ministry, Lisa Stansfield, and Utah Saints In 1993, it was voted at number 50 on Spins Top 100 Songs of Our Time. In 2012, NME ranked "Lithium" at number 52 on its list of the "100 Best Tracks Of The '90s". In 2013, it was voted number one "by a pretty comfortable margin" in Rolling Stone's reader's poll of "The 10 Best Nirvana Songs." In 2019, the song was placed at number seven on Rolling Stones ranking of 102 Nirvana songs. According to Nielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "Lithium" was the tenth most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 123,000 spins. All of the songs in the top 10 were from the 1990s. Legacy On April 10, 2014, "Lithium" was performed by surviving Nirvana members Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smear, with lead vocals and guitar by American rock musician St. Vincent, at the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York. "Lithium" has been used as the goal song for Seattle's National Hockey League (NHL) team, the Seattle Kraken, since their inaugural season. Chart performance In the United States, the single charted at number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100 single chart. "Lithium" peaked at number 16 and 25 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock and Modern Rock Tracks airplay charts, respectively. Live promotional versions Paradiso version A live version of "Lithium," recorded at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Netherlands on November 25, 1991, was released as a promotional single in Holland in 1996, for the live compilation From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, released in October 1996. Clips of this performance of the song appeared in the 2005 documentary Classic Albums: Nirvana – Nevermind, and