Nevermind, or how to make a reviewer feel really old.
One of my enduring concert memories is Nirvana playing Something In The Way at the Logan Campbell Centre way back when.
It was pure power, despite being the slowest, quietest track from Nevermind.
Any rock fan, scratch that, any music
fan should already have a copy of Nevermind.
So why splash out for this on top?
It's all in the extras of course, a fantastic collection of tracks including B-sides like the brilliant Aneurysm and live versions of Been a Son and Sliver. Or check out the previously unreleased Devonshire mixes, producer Butch Vig's original mix of the entire Nevermind album before the commercial polish was applied.
Nevermind may have been built on the backs of others, like the Pixies, but it was a landmark album that changed the musical landscape for artists and fans alike.
Stars: 5/5
Edition details:
With configurations ranging from a 4-CD/1-DVD Super Deluxe Edition to a standard digital/CD remaster of the original album, the 20th anniversary reissue of Nevermind includes dozens of previously unreleased recordings, obscure B-sides, alternate mixes, radio sessions, studio rarities and live recordings, including a 1991 Halloween concert at Seattle's Paramount Theatre in its entirety.
The limited, numbered Super Deluxe Edition sees 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 of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are," "On A Plain" and others.
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.
The Nirvana Nevermind 20th anniversary reissue is also available as a 2-CD Deluxe Edition featuring the remastered album and B-sides, the Smart Studio sessions, boombox rehearsals and BBC sessions, a 4-LP, 180-gram heavyweight vinyl edition featuring the same 40 tracks as the Deluxe Edition, a remastered CD of the original album, and digital versions of the standard and deluxe editions. The Paramount concert, transferred from 16mm film and multi-track audio, is the only known Nirvana concert shot to film and will be available in a 1080p high-definition picture and uncompressed 5.1 surround sound and stereo on stand-alone Blu-ray, along with DVD and digital long form video formats.
