Nirvana – Nevermind [180g LP]

Nirvana – Nevermind [180g Vinyl LP]

Details

• Format: LP, Album, Reissue, 180 Gram Vinyl
• Catalogue Number: GEF 24425
• Barcode: 720642442517
• Genre: Grunge, Alternative Rock
• Label: Geffen Records / DGC Records
• Originally Released: 24 September 1991
• Reissue Released: 2013 (this pressing configuration has been continuously repressed; exact year of this copy unconfirmed probably more recent)
• Pressing: 180 Gram Vinyl
• Condition: New & Sealed

Description

By the time Nevermind was released on 24 September 1991, Nirvana had already made two records — the raw Sub Pop debut Bleach (1989) and a collection of demos and outtakes — and had spent years touring relentlessly. Geffen's DGC imprint had signed them on the strength of their live reputation and the potential of Kurt Cobain's songwriting, but the label's internal projections were modest. Producer Butch Vig, who had previously worked with the band on early demos, was brought in to record the album at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, between April and May 1991. The sessions were then mixed by Andy Wallace at Scream Studio City, and mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk in New York. What emerged bore little resemblance to what anyone had anticipated commercially.

The album's opening track, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', broke on college radio and quickly crossed into mainstream rotation in a way that alternative rock had never previously managed at scale. Within four months of release Nevermind had displaced Michael Jackson's Dangerous at number one on the Billboard 200. It went on to sell over 30 million copies worldwide — certified Diamond in the United States alone — and dragged grunge and alternative rock from the underground into the centre of mainstream culture with a speed and totality that genuinely caught everyone, including the band, off guard. Rolling Stone ranked it number 17 on their 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2005 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry as a work of cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

The record's impact was partly sonic and partly contextual. Vig's production gave the band a clarity and density they hadn't previously achieved on record — Dave Grohl's drums in particular were captured with a presence and weight that became a template for rock production throughout the 1990s — while Cobain's melodic instincts and his ability to move between fragile vulnerability and shredding intensity gave the album an emotional range that sustained it beyond any particular cultural moment. Beyond 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', the album contains 'Come as You Are', 'Lithium', 'In Bloom', and 'Polly', each of which became defining songs of the era, along with the haunting closer 'Something in the Way', which Cobain reputedly recorded largely alone, whispering the vocal to avoid disturbing bandmates asleep in the studio.

This standard Geffen 180 gram reissue presents Nevermind in its original 12-track configuration — without the hidden track 'Endless, Nameless' that appeared on original pressings after a long silence at the end of Side B — pressed on heavyweight vinyl with a printed inner sleeve.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. In Bloom
3. Come as You Are
4. Breed
5. Lithium
6. Polly

Side B

1. Territorial Pissings
2. Drain You
3. Lounge Act
4. Stay Away
5. On a Plain
6. Something in the Way

Credits

• Kurt Cobain – vocals, guitar
• Krist Novoselic – bass
• Dave Grohl – drums, backing vocals
• Produced by – Butch Vig and Nirvana
• Mixed by – Andy Wallace
• Mastered by – Howie Weinberg at Masterdisk, New York City
• Recorded at – Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, California, April–May 1991
• Mixed at – Scream, Studio City, California
• Label – Geffen Records / DGC Records