Nirvana lead second wave of rock/pop blu-ray audio releases

Nirvana‘s Nevermind and In Utero are two of the titles being reissued this month on the Universal’s ‘High Fidelity – Pure Audio’ branded blu-ray audio discs.

Other albums issued include The Rolling Stones‘ classic Exile On Main Street, Queen‘s A Night At The Opera, Crime Of The Century by Supertramp and Beck’s Sea Change.

Like the first batch – that have had a rather staggered release around Europe these past few months – these forthcoming blu-ray audio reissues will offer no video content, just three hi-res stereo audio options: Full DTS Master Audio, PCM (Pulse Control Modulation uncompressed Sound) or Dolby True HD.

A big discussion point will be whether we get offered a 5.1 surround sound option to sit alongside the stereo audio, on any of these titles. In the booklets supplied with the first releases Universal state: “Where possible tracks will be available in 5.1 surround, but in order to pay respect to the original material this is not possible for every release”. Certainly the Queen title has been available in 5.1 on various other formats, so one would expect to see them include that.

Presumably, In Utero will be the new Steve Albini remaster, but it is curious that this blu-ray audio wasn’t mentioned in the press release for that reissue, and will it come with the 32 bonus tracks you get on the similarly priced 2CD deluxe edition?

At the moment these are only available from Amazon Germany, with a release date of 20 September. We will update this page if and when other territories get these releases!

New titles on Blu-ray Audio:

Nevermind / Nirvana
GERMANY Pre-order: Nevermind (Blu-Ray Audio)

In Utero / Nirvana
GERMANY Pre-order: In Utero (Blu-Ray Audio)

Exile On Main Street / The Rolling Stones
GERMANY Pre-order: Exile on Main St (Blu-Ray Audio)

Crime Of The Century / Supertramp
GERMANY Pre-order: Crime of the Century (Blu-Ray Audio)

Sea Change / Beck
GERMANY Pre-order: Sea Change (Blu-Ray Audio)

Back To Black / Amy Winehouse
GERMANY Pre-order: Back to Black (Blu-Ray Audio)

Five Leaves Left / Nick Drake
GERMANY Pre-order: Five Leaves Left (Blu-Ray Audio)

A Night At The Opera / Queen
GERMANY Pre-order: A Night at the Opera (Blu-Ray Audio)