Nirvana – In Utero

so this CD I think the pressing is of a very good standard, worth picking up when you see it, I highly recommend this MPO pressing...not much difference between the vinyl...and the break in song 12 is actually about 24 minutes, it's silent...can't believe what the intention was...wow

Nach dem für die Band, aber vor allem für den Sänger Kurt Cobain, überraschenden Erfolg des Vorgängers „Nevermind“ musste diese Platte eben ganz anders ausfallen. Am besten so kommerzunfähig wie es eben geht. Die Plattenfirma störte dies, die Fans natürlich nicht und daher wurde auch diese Platte zu einem weltweiten Erfolg. Bereits in der ersten Textzeile vom Eröffnungstrack „Serve the servants“ verweist die Band auf diesen Zustand: „Teenage angst has paid off well“. Musikalisch verstörend wirkt dann der zweite Song des Albums „Scentless apprentice“ mit dem wutentbrannten, herausgeschrienen Refrain „Go away – get away, get away, get a-way“. Textlich kann man anhand der Textzeilen „Like most babies smell like butter / His smell smelled like no other / He was born scentless and senseless / He was born a scentless apprentice” eine Hommage an den Roman “Das Parfüm” von Patrick Süßkind erkennen. Es folgt die erste Single “Heart-shaped box”, mit der sich die Band erneut bei der Menschheit beschwert („Hey / Wait / I´ve got a new complait“). Einen deutlichen Wink mit dem Zaunpfahl dürfte die Plattenfirma mit dem Song „Rape me“ abbekommen haben, denn dies war ein Grund, warum die Band diesen nicht im September 1992 bei den MTV Video Music Awards spielen durfte. Ab diesem Zeitpunkt wurde er zu meinem Lieblingsstück der Platte. Vorher war dies noch das folgende „Frances Farmer will have her revenge on Seattle“, was einerseits durch das Statement „I miss the comfort in being sad“ für Furore sorgte, andererseits durch die Tatsache das es Frances Farmer wirklich gab. Es handelte sich um eine Schauspielerin aus Seattle, die ebenfalls dem Erfolgsdruck der Öffentlichkeit nicht Stand halten konnte. Es folgt mit „Dumb“ der vielleicht poppigste Song der Platte, in dem sich Cobain darum streitet ob der Zustand der Dummheit oder des Glücklichseins in ihm überwiegt. Diese beiden Zustände werden aber durch die Wut übertroffen, nachzuhören in dem Song „Milk it“, der in die Avantgarde und New Wave-Ecke abrutscht und dadurch sehr viele „Nevermind“-Fans ziemlich verstört haben wird. Und wenn die ganze Wut im Körper nicht von allein verschwindet, wird auf „Pennyroyal tea“ hingewiesen, dessen Genuss abtreibungsfördernde Wirkung haben soll. Der Song „Radio friendly unit shifter“ ist durch seine gitarrenverzerrten Feedbackorgien sehr sperrig und radiountauglich gehalten, genau wie das an „Territorial pissing“-erinnernde „Tourette´s“, in dem in knapp 1.30 Minuten Schimpfwörter herausgeschrien werden, die hier lieber nicht aufgezählt werden. Trotz all dieser Wut und Provokation auf dem ganzen Album gibt es mit „All apologies“ einen Entschuldigungssong von der Band, aber nicht ohne eine gehörige Portion Ironie. Auch wenn dieses Album, die letzte offizielle Veröffentlichung darstellt, wird Nirvana für immer weiterleben.

Completely alienated by his music and suffocated by the unbearable weight of success, Cobain tried to escape, pouring all his demons in the most personal album of his – short - career. Running away from what Nirvana had become, he tried to approach his music to the spontaneity of the beginnings. Recorded in two weeks by Steve Albini, In Utero is a derailed noise rock album closer to Jesus Lizard sickness than to Nevermind youth discomfort. Dissonant arpeggios, drunken melodies and acid feedbacks represent an harsh deviation from mainstream rock world in which Nirvana were deeply trapped in. Yet In Utero doesn’t portray only the disquieted and disturbed side of Cobain poetic, but also the jaded, frail and desolated one: through depressed melodies, the cathartic power of which wouldn’t have been sufficient to save its author. One of the most intense opus of its decade.

Probably Nirvana's finest achievement. It's much less glitzy sounding than Nevermind was - and could have been even less so as Steve Albini's original, rougher sounding recordings were remixed by Scott Litt of REM (production) fame. It'd be wonderful to hear these original recordings as a re-release (like the Beatles did with Let it be [Naked]). It'll probably never happen - but that's major labels for you. According to Kurt's diaries, the original idea was to release the Albini version on vinyl and 8-track(!) only through Touch and Go recordings, and the radio friendly version on CD through Geffen. Nice idea but i'm sure Geffen didn't fancy licensing one of their biggest selling artists ever to some trendy label just so the cool kids could have the Albini version on vinyl. You never know though - they've already released about as many rarities as they can in the With The Lights Out box set, sure they'll try and milk the legacy a bit more in the next few years...

Rumoured to be have originally been titled 'I Hate Myself and I Want To Die', In Utero was a marked improvement on the previous 2 albums, Bleach and Nevermind, and offered glimpse of what might have been had things not turned out the way they did.
This album would be my recommended start point for anyone not familiar with Nirvana.
Hard, fast, energetic for the most part but with tracks that showed another side to the band, a side highlighted on the excellent 'Unplugged in New York' album.
The fact that there's a 15 to 20 minute gap of silence between tracks 12 and 13, is made less tedious to skip through by the quality of the track thats hidden, a real gem surpassed on the album by only a handful of tracks, including the sublime All Apologies, the almost balladic Heart Shaped Box and the superbly aggressive Scentless Apprentice, one of my favourite tracks ever by any artist, any genre.

"I lie in the the soil and fertilize mushrooms,
Leaking out gas fumes made into perfume"

RIP and thanks.

This is one interesting artefact of grunge era. It wasn't recieved as well as Nevermind, but in retrospect its a certain improvement over their breakout album. Nevermind, in my opinion, suffered from some being a little bit samey, whereas In Utero, as said by Cobain himself, is more varied and better recorded album. It is also scary and quite punishing in many places - as if though Cobain cut open his head for anyone to see. In fact, one of the songs (Tourette's) is blindingly fast and no wonder that it was later covered (not sure whether it was serious or ironic version) by death metal band Impaled.