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With the Lights Out

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With the Lights Out

With the Lights Out is a box set by the American rock band Nirvana, released on November 23, 2004. It contains three CDs and one DVD of previously rare or unreleased material, including B-sides, demos, and rehearsal and live recordings. The title comes from the lyrics of Nirvana's 1991 single "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

With the Lights Out was planned for release in 2001, but was delayed by a legal battle with Courtney Love, the widow of Nirvana singer, Kurt Cobain. As of 2016, it had sold 546,000 copies in the US.

Rumors of a posthumous Nirvana anthology surfaced in the mid-1990s, not long after the death of the singer and guitarist, Kurt Cobain, in April 1994. It was reported in Kerrang! in April 1999 that the surviving Nirvana members, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, were planning a box set to be released in 2000 at the earliest. It was later announced that a 45-track box set would be released in September 2001, to mark the 10th anniversary of the band's breakthrough album, Nevermind, but it was delayed by a legal battle with Cobain's widow, Courtney Love.

Much of the dispute centered on the unreleased song "You Know You're Right", recorded in January 1994 during the band's final studio session. Grohl and Novoselic wanted it for the box set, but Love blocked its release and sued them for control of Nirvana's legacy. Love's lawsuit asserted that "the parties have fundamentally different concepts of how to manage the musical and artistic legacy of Kurt Cobain", which resulted "in a stalemate of decision making". She believed that "You Know You're Right" would be "wasted" on a box set, and instead belonged on a single-disc compilation similar to the Beatles' 1.

In 2002, the legal battle was settled, and "You Know You're Right" appeared on the "best-of" compilation Nirvana. This paved the way for what became the With the Lights Out box set, which arrived in November 2004, over three years after its original release date but with more music than originally promised, including an acoustic demo of "You Know You're Right".

Before the release of With the Lights Out, a promotional EP, Selections from With the Lights Out, was sent to radio stations, featuring the songs "White Lace and Strange", "Blandest", "Lithium", "Heart-Shaped Box" and "You Know You're Right" from the box set. "Lithium" was also released as an exclusive iTunes downloadable single on November 22, 2004. The music video for the original version of "In Bloom", made in 1990 and first released on the Sub Pop Video Network Program VHS compilation in 1991, was released to music television to promote the box set. The video appears on the box set's DVD. An online trailer was also released for the box set, featuring footage from the DVD and audio from the three CDs.

With the Lights Out is packaged in heat-sensitive material which changes color when touched, revealing images of recording session tapes.

Each of the three CDs loosely represents the rare recordings from three periods in Nirvana's history, in line with the band's three studio albums, Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero, which were released in 1989, 1991 and 1993 respectively. The DVD contains rare live performances and rehearsals from throughout the band's career.

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