Debut studio album by Pearl Jam, originally released on August 27, 1991 through Epic Records. Pearl Jam's debut album, was released less than a month before Nirvana's Nevermind, and although it took longer to climb the pop charts it also hung around longer, eventually outselling its Seattle rival. Together, the two albums reinvigorated rock and roll, whose share of the pop marketplace had been slipping through the late 1980s.