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Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!
Today’s music pick marks the 35th anniversary of the record that started it all for Seattle’s most significant grunge act.
Genre: Alternative, Grunge, Punk
Label: Sub Pop
Release Date: June 15, 1989
Vibe: 😤
When I was looking for a way to underscore how influential Nirvana’s studio debut, Bleach, remains in rock and punk, The Blair Witch Project immediately came to mind as a comparison.
Both pop culture texts famously cost relatively little to make ($606.17 for the LP, an estimated $35,000 for the film), pushing the boundaries of each medium’s lo-fi aesthetic. Because of the low cost, both also enjoyed a substantial return on that initial investment (the record has since sold nearly 2 million copies, while the film pulled in over $248 million at the box office). Like the found-footage horror subgenre that the film spawned, the more I dug into my research, the more I realized how much of grunge’s appeal and legacy wouldn’t exist without Bleach.
Before I continue, I should add some important context: I’m one of those rare Nevermind objectors. It’s a mostly entertaining listen, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it’s the greatest album of the decade (I don’t even think it would crack my Top 10), nor is it the best record the group released in their short time together. Part of my issue with Nevermind is the polished mixing and mastering, a stylistic choice that doesn’t necessarily make good on Bleach’s sonic promissory note. Kurt Cobain voiced similar sentiments in the run-up to In Utero. “Looking back on the production of Nevermind, I’m embarrassed by it now,” he told Michael Azerrad, author of Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. “It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.” The late Steve Albini also said the rougher Butch Vig mix the record was “maybe 200 times more ass-kicking” than what made the cut for the final release.
An album that knowingly sanded down its rougher edges to maximize its mainstream appeal? Doesn’t that go against everything the subculture supposedly stands for?
The first documented use of the term “grunge” came in 1988, when the Seattle imprint Sub Pop released a three-volume box set titled The Sub Pop 200. The collection, which included early cuts from Soundgarden and Mudhoney, in addition to Nirvana. The release was accompanied by Charles Peterson’s photography, who had an eye for ripped jeans, greasy hair, and boot-and-flannel chic. “It wasn’t like somebody said, ‘Let’s all dress like lumberjacks and start Seattle chic, said label co-founder Jonathan Poneman. “This stuff is cheap, it’s durable, and [also] runs against the grain of the whole flashy esthetic that existed in the 80s.” Grunge’s pop success runs counter to everything it holds dear ideologically.
That’s why Bleach is my favorite Nirvana LP. It’s arguably the most “grunge” alternative rock album ever made. It’s raw, scuzzy as hell, and, likely due to the time and money constraints, pared down to its absolute essence. In that vein, it also sounds way better than a sub-thousand-dollar record has any right to. In-your-face rockers like “Floyd the Barber,” “Paper Cuts,” and “Negative Creep” nip at the heels of hard rock legends like Aerosmith and Black Sabbath while dredging the main riffs and melodies in fuzz and feedback. Lean and mean would be the understatement of the year.
But, even back then, the group’s facility with a sonic hook cut right through the self-imposed sludge. The drum intro on “Scoff” reminds me of 70s pop-rock a la “My Sharona,” while Kurt serves up a paranoid singalong of a chorus. “Big Cheese,” a track that supposedly took aim at the Sub Pop hands that fed Nirvana, sucks you in with Krist Novoselic’s leering bass chords that sound like the girl crawling out of the TV at the end of The Ring looks. Whether he liked it or not (I suspect he felt cursed by it), Kurt Cobain had an ear for what made rock music catchy in the first place. In that sense, the comparisons between him and John Lennon feel apt.
The deluxe re-issue Bleach features a live recording of NIrvana playing at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon. The band plays a loud, fast set (at times, it sounds like they’re rushing through the already-brief songs) that’s a perfect showcase for how good they were as a unit. Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing provide Cobain with the steel backbone of a rhythm section, allowing him to punctuate the hard-charging compositions with all manner of wails and grunts. They sound like they could really be something.
That euphoric sensation of capturing lightning in a bottle is the biggest reason why Nirvana became Sub Pop darlings, grunge hitmakers, and, as corny as it sounds, the voice of the disenfranchised latchkey generation. The label’s other co-founder, Bruce Pavitt, who retired shortly after the label sold a 49% ownership stake to Warner Bros., summed it up well in an interview:
“I’ve always had an instinctive desire to connect with the transcendent. And that’s something I experienced a lot in music, especially going to early punk rock shows, where the music and the energy between the performer and the crowd would reach such a level that for a split second I would forget everything. That is a transcendental moment and that is something I experienced over and over again watching bands like Nirvana and Mudhoney.”
It may not be your dad, uncle, colleague, or friend’s favorite Nirvana album, but it’s unquestionably the most important.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈