Nirvana – Bleach [Vinyl LP]

Nirvana – Bleach [Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo
• Catalogue Number: SP34
• Barcode: 098787003413
• Genre: Grunge / Alternative Rock / Punk Rock
• Label: Sub Pop Records
• Originally Released: 15 June 1989
• Reissue Released: 22 November 2011
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

Bleach is Nirvana's debut studio album and one of the most important records in the history of alternative rock. Originally released on 15 June 1989 by Sub Pop Records, it was recorded over a handful of sessions at Reciprocal Recording Studios in Seattle, produced by Jack Endino, and made for a total cost of just $606.17 — most of it contributed by Jason Everman, the rhythm guitarist who appears on the cover but plays on none of the tracks. Raw, heavy and shot through with Kurt Cobain's melodic instincts even at their most ferocious, it is a remarkable debut from a band that was still finding its identity.

The album was recorded with drummer Chad Channing — who would remain with the band through to Nevermind — but three tracks ("Floyd the Barber", "Paper Cuts" and "Downer", the latter exclusive to CD) were recorded during an earlier session featuring Dale Crover of The Melvins, whose thunderous playing gives those tracks a distinctive weight. Cobain had tried to re-record them with Channing but ultimately preferred the Crover versions. It is one of the many fascinating details that make Bleach an endlessly interesting record for anyone tracing the roots of Nirvana's sound.

Initially it sold modestly — around 40,000 copies before the release of Nevermind — but its standing transformed overnight in September 1991. In the years since, it has been certified Platinum by the RIAA with over 1.9 million copies sold in the US alone, making it Sub Pop's best-selling album of all time. In 2019, Rolling Stone ranked it number 13 on their list of the 50 Greatest Grunge Albums.

The album is a masterclass in the tension between noise and melody. "About a Girl" — inspired by Cobain's then-girlfriend Tracy Marander and reportedly written after an intensive listen to the Beatles' Meet the Beatles! — is one of the most purely beautiful songs of his career, its gentle chord progression shining out like a beacon among the surrounding heaviness. "Blew" opens the record with a hypnotic, lurching riff; "School" is an exercise in cathartic, circular intensity; "Negative Creep" is three minutes of coruscating self-loathing; and "Love Buzz" — a cover of a 1969 song by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue — is the album's most immediate and propulsive moment.

This reissue presents the full remastered album as found on the acclaimed Bleach Deluxe Edition (2009), cut at Sterling Sound, with a printed inner sleeve.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Blew
2. Floyd the Barber (drums – Dale Crover)
3. About a Girl
4. School
5. Love Buzz
6. Paper Cuts (drums – Dale Crover)

Side B

1. Negative Creep
2. Scoff
3. Swap Meet
4. Mr. Moustache
5. Sifting

Credits

• Kurt Cobain – Guitar, Vocals
• Krist Novoselic – Bass
• Chad Channing – Drums
• Dale Crover – Drums (Floyd the Barber, Paper Cuts)
• Jack Endino – Producer, Engineer
• George Marino – Remastering, Sterling Sound (2009)
• Label – Sub Pop Records