Nirvana: Bleach [SUB POP]

Why you'll love it

Bleach is where it all started: Nirvana's first album, recorded with Jack Endino for around $600, with the Beatles-y "About a Girl" and the punishing "Negative Creep" and "School." It's a Sub Pop classic.

This edition

• Sub Pop pressing
• Produced by Jack Endino

About the album

Before Nevermind made them the biggest band in the world, Nirvana were three guys from Aberdeen, Washington making sludgy, heavy, Melvins-inspired rock for Seattle's Sub Pop label. Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing recorded Bleach with Jack Endino at Reciprocal Recording over a few days in late 1988 and early 1989, and it famously cost about $600.

It's raw and loud, but the songs are already there: "Blew" crawls along on a detuned riff, "School" and "Negative Creep" are pure fury, their cover of Shocking Blue's "Love Buzz" was their first single, and "About a Girl" is a perfect, jangly pop song that pointed straight to the future. Essential grunge.

Also at Kops: more Nirvana on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Sub Pop, first out in 1989.