Nirvana Nevermind

TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Informal
Pressed on Audiophile Quality 180g Vinyl LP!
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 6/500!
Nevermind was never meant to change the world, but you can never predict when the zeitgeist will hit, and Nirvana's 1991 "Nevermind" turned out to be the place where alternative rock crashed into the mainstream.
Ranked #1 Spin Magazine's 90 Greatest Albums of the 1990s.
No matter how much anguish there is on Nevermind, it's bracing because Kurt Cobain exorcises his demons through evocative wordplay and mangled screams paired with the band's a tremendous, unbridled power that transcends the pain, turning into pure catharsis. And that's as key to the record's success as Cobain's songwriting, since Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl help turn this into music that is gripping, powerful, and even fun (and, really, there's no other way to characterize "Territorial Pissings" or the surging "Breed").
Following a European tour supporting Sonic Youth in the late summer 1991, Nevermind was released in September, supported by a quick American tour. While DGC was expecting a moderately successful release, in the neighborhood of 100,000 copies, Nevermind immediately became a smash hit, quickly selling out its initial shipment of 50,000 copies and creating a shortage across America. What helped the record become a success was "Smells Like Teen Spirit," a blistering four-chord rocker that was accompanied by a video that shot into heavy MTV rotation. By the beginning of 1992, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had climbed into the American Top Ten and Nevermind bumped Michael Jackson's much-touted comeback album Dangerous off the top of the album charts; it reached the British Top Ten shortly afterward. By February, the album had been certified triple platinum.
Contrary to the hedonistic themes popular in rock music at the time, writers have observed that Nevermind promoted the image of the sensitive artist in mainstream rock. Written primarily by frontman Kurt Cobain, the album is noted for channeling a range of emotions, being noted as dark, humorous, and disturbing. Its themes include alienation, frustration, anti-establishment and anti-sexist views, and troubled love inspired by Cobain's broken relationship with Bikini Kill's Tobi Vail. A landmark in grunge and alternative rock, the album also features acoustic ballads and punk-inspired hard rock.
Nevermind became an unexpected critical and commercial success, replacing Michael Jackson's Dangerous at the number one spot of the US Billboard 200 in January 1992. The lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", reached the Top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100 and went on to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Three other successful singles were released: "Come as You Are", "Lithium", and "In Bloom". The album was voted the best album of the year in Pazz & Jop critics' poll, while "Smells Like Teen Spirit" also topped the single-of-the-year and video-of-the-year polls. The album also garnered the band three Grammy Award nominations, including Best Alternative Music Album.
Nevermind propelled Nirvana into worldwide superstardom, with Cobain being dubbed the "voice of his generation". It brought grunge and alternative rock to a mainstream audience while accelerating the decline of hair metal. It is also often credited with initiating a resurgence of interest in punk culture among teenagers and young adults of Generation X. It has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. In 2024, it was certified 13× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Nevermind was added by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry in 2004 for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and is frequently ranked highly on lists of the greatest albums of all time.
"No album in recent history had such an overpowering impact on a generation - a nation of teens suddenly turned punk - and such a catastrophic effect on its main creator. The weight of success led already troubled singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain to take his own life in 1994. But his slashing riffs, corrosive singing and deviously oblique writing, rammed home by the Pixies-via-Zeppelin might of bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, put the warrior purity back in rock & roll." - Rolling Stone

Features:

• 180g Vinyl LP

Selections:

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