Nirvana - Bleach (Deluxe Edition) (1989/2013) [Hi-Res]

Marking the 20th Anniversary of Nirvana’s debut album, Sub Pop will re-issue the Platinum Certified Bleach on November 3, 2009. This expanded album includes a never-before-released live performance.

Originally recorded over three sessions with producer Jack Endino at Seattle’s Reciprocal Recording Studios in December 1988 and January 1989, Bleach was released in June of ‘89 and remains unequivocally/unsurprisingly Sub Pop’s very favorite Nirvana full-length. The album initially sold 40,000 copies, but was brought into the international spotlight following the release and worldwide success of their 1991 sophomore effort, Nevermind. Subsequently Bleach went on to sell 1.7 million copies in the US alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This 20th Anniversary Edition has been re-mastered from the original tapes at Sterling Sound in a session overseen by producer Jack Endino.

This edition will include an unreleased live recording of a complete February 9th, 1990 show at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon. The show features performances of “Love Buzz,” “About a Girl” and a cover of The Vaselines’ song “Molly’s Lips” and has been re-mixed from the original tapes by Endino (complete track listing below).

'Beginning with a feedback overture and ending with full-on instrument destruction, the live set is a snapshot of a menacingly feral band about to become a beast.' (Rolling Stones)

This is off our first record, most people don't own it,' Kurt Cobain whispered before strumming the opening chords of 'About a Girl' during Nirvana's 1993 'MTV Unplugged' performance. As Cobain had guessed, most audience members probably weren't aware that the solemn track was from the band's 1989 debut, 'Bleach.' Unlike Nirvana's more polished, alternative-leaning breakthrough, 1991's 'Nevermind,' the sludgy backwoods material on 'Bleach' reveals the humble beginnings of a band that would lead a new musical movement and earn itself a place in rock'n'roll history. Twenty years after its original release on Sub Pop, 'Bleach' is freshened up with remastered versions of unusually heavy songs like the haunting 'Negative Creep,' where Cobain howls about alienation and being stoned, and the pounding 'Floyd the Barber,' where the main subject of the eerie track is a man being strapped down and tortured by characters from 'The Andy Griffith Show.' The set also includes a feedback-heavy live set from a 1990 performance at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Ore., where Nirvana tightly crushes through songs from 'Bleach' and early rarities like 'Spank Thru' and 'Sappy.' (Mitchell Peters)

...some Nirvana die-hards argue that Bleach is Nirvana’s finest work.

Kurt Cobain, vocals, guitar
Jason Everman, guitar
Chris Novoselic, bass
Chad Channing, drums
Additional personnel:
Dale Crover, drums

Digitally remastered.