Product Description

The limited, numbered Super Deluxe Edition more than lives up to its name as one of the most expansive and ambitious collections of its kind with only 10,000 copies available in North America, and another 30,000 for the rest of the world. The Super Deluxe features not only the original remastered album and accompanying studio and live B-sides, but the first full official release of the pre-Nevermind demos recorded at producer Butch Vig's Smart Studios, as well as boombox recordings of subsequent rehearsals through which the listener can actually experience "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are," "On A Plain" and others that take shape before his or her very ears. The Super Deluxe also offers an altogether new perspective on the finished Nevermind album exclusive to this format in the form of the Devonshire Mixes: the album as produced and mixed by Vig as opposed to the commercially released final version produced by Vig and mixed by Andy Wallace. Rounding out the Super Deluxe are a pair of previously unreleased BBC recordings and the aforementioned 1991 Paramount show available for the first time and exclusive to this format on CD and DVD (which also features all four music videos from Nevermind), as well as a stunning 90-page bound book full of rarely and never-before-seen photos, documents and various other visual artifacts of the Nevermind era.

Track Listing

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. In Bloom
3. Come As You Are
4. Breed
5. Lithium
6. Polly
7. Territorial Pissings
8. Drain You
9. Lounge Act
10. Stay Away
11. On A Plain
12. Something In The Way

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #428 in Music
• Published on: 1991
• Released on: 1991-09-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Features

• NIRVANA NEVERMIND

Amazon.com
If Nevermind's sound is familiar now, it's only because thousands of rock records that followed it were trying very hard to cop its style. It tears out of the speakers like a cannonball, from the punk-turbo-charged riff of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" onward, magnifying and distilling the wounded rage of 15 years of the rock underground into a single impassioned roar. Few albums have occupied the cultural consciousness like this one; of its 12 songs, roughly 10 are now standards. The record's historical weight can make it hard to hear now with fresh ears, but the monumental urgency of Kurt Cobain's screams is still shocking. --Douglas Wolk

Rolling Stone 5/5 stars - September 27, 2011
When Nevermind exploded into earshot in the autumn of 1991, it was startling: a grenade detonating in your car radio. It sounded like the end of something (the 1980s? hair metal?), or maybe the beginning of something ("alternative rock"? "Generation X"?). Today, the album has become so encrusted with myth, that it's hard to wrap your ears around it, to really hear it. In 2005, the Library of Congress added Nevermind to its roll call of the world's most significant recordings. It's a museum piece, a record that merits a display in the Smithsonian. And, of course, a doorstopper 20th-anniversary box set.

How you choose to mark the occasion will depend on the state of your stock portfolio, and the degree of your wonkiness. The Deluxe Edition augments the remastered LP with fantastic B sides (check "Curmudgeon," featuring the howlingest metal- dude vocal Kurt Cobain ever recorded) and stupefying live performances; plus demos, previously unreleased BBC sessions and eight cruddy-vérité "boombox rehearsals" of Nevermind tracks. Fork out an extra $100-plus for the Super Deluxe Edition and you get all that, plus a version of Nevermind mixed by Butch Vig, before Andy Wallace was brought in for the final mix, a CD and DVD of a mind-blowing 1991concert at Seattle's Paramount Theatre, and a 90-page book.

The extras offer history lessons - and help you hear Nevermind with fresh ears. The live versions of "Breed" and "Drain You" show why Nirvana may be the greatest power trio ever: The heave and thrust of Krist Novoselic's bass, the Bonhamworthy attack of Dave Grohl's drums, the tumult of Cobain's singing, which proved screaming yourself hoarse could be as powerful, and as beautiful, as any vocal style. Compare the boombox demos with the finished LP - where Cobain's songs were burnished to a fiery glow - and you realize it was pop, not punk, that turned Nirvana into the biggest band on Earth. As works of melodic craftsmanship, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Lithium" and "Lounge Act" are up there with the best of Buddy Holly, Smokey Robinson and other genius hook masters.

Twenty years on, Nevermind is everywhere: Its loud-quiet-loud dynamics even power hits by Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. The lasting impact on mainstream bubblegum is ironic, considering its big theme: the ambivalence of an independent band going for the brass ring. Just listen to the dripping disdain of Cobain's most famous refrain: "Here we are now, entertain us."

Cobain claimed to be embarrassed by Nevermind's glossy production: "It's closer to a Mötley Crüe record than it is a punk-rock record," he said. Of course, that's what you expect him to say. His punk purism was a religion, but it was also a shtick, his version of showbiz. Listening to Nevermind now, you marvel at what a good show the band puts on. For a record so full of angst, it's quite a party - an adrenaline rush that sweeps you up. That's not a feeling you can pin to any genre or ideology. That's not punk or grunge or even pop. That's entertainment.

From the Artist
Released in September 1991, Nirvana's sophomore album and major label debut elevated Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl from a critically acclaimed Aberdeen, Washington, cult band to generational spokesmen who'd unwittingly created a cultural shift and musical touchstone. Rising to No. 1 the world over by year's end and ultimately selling over 30 million copies worldwide, Nevermind would come to be much more than one of the most successful and influential albums of its or any era. As the album that returned unaffected rock 'n' roll integrity and passion to the top of the charts, Nevermind would prove a singular inspiration to fans and musicians alike over the last two decades--and will undoubtedly do so for generations to come.