For Christmas, I received the new vinyl reissue of Nirvana’s seminal 1991 album,
Nevermind. This beautiful thing, mastered by acclaimed engineer,
Bernie Grundman, and pressed at
RTI on extremely quiet 180gm vinyl, is brought to us by
Original Recordings Group. Thank god for them.
Nevermind always sounded good, but never
this good.
I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison with an old compact disc, but upon setting needle to groove, I was immediately struck by the awesome presence of Dave Grohl’s drums. They come from beyond my front wall and rush forth with a power that sticks in my gut. Kurt Cobain’s words were never this lucid, the tone of his voice never so gripping; I wish he were still with us. Grohl’s backing vocals were never such a perfectly integrated part of the whole; you can now clearly hear his own potential superstardom. Cobain’s leads never had this much space to breath, to quake, to overwhelm and dazzle. (I was never aware of the stereo effects—notes come from the right channel and then the left and then again the right and finally from both channels for a dizzying, psychedelic ride. Were these effects even there the first time around?) And while it was always understood that so much hinged upon Krist Novoselic’s bass riffs, it’s now obvious that he was really the tightest of knots connecting this impossibly powerful trio.
I love these songs. I know them like I know my own phone number or street address or best friends; they’re just
with me. But I sort of love them more now.
Original Recordings Group was launched in 2006 by Monti Olsen, a senior VP of Universal Music Publishing Group/Interscope Records. The company’s mission is to produce beautiful products at attainable prices.
We want to be known for producing high quality vinyl records of many genres of music for the audiophile and special market sectors.
Hooray!
ORG has the North American rights to Nirvana’s
Nevermind,
In Utero, and
MTV Unplugged. Each album is available in limited-edition color vinyl and 180gm black vinyl. (My copy is black; music editor
Robert Baird got a blue one!)
In Utero comes in an intoxicating marbled yellow, while
MTV Unplugged is bright red. (I’m going to collect them all.) And what’s this?! ORG is set to release other classic albums in the New Year, including several of Sonic Youth’s early albums. (They will be mine.)
2010 is going to be a good, good year. Thanks, ORG.
