In Utero[LP]

Description

Nirvana's third (and ultimately final) studio album, In Utero, was 1993's most polarizing rock record. The unadorned sonic rawness laid bare every primal nuance of the Nirvana's confrontational, yet vulnerable material. Featuring the singles "Heart-Shaped Box," and "All Apologies," it has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. 180-gram LP (33-1/3rpm). Review: Nirvana's Last Studio Recording is an amazing one - In Utero was Nirvana's last studio recording, and it's a great one. This is the album that seperates Nirvana's followers from the true fans. It is raw, unflinching, and at times painful to listen to. Kurt Cobain, while writing this album, intended parts of it to split Nirvana's bandwagoners, that hopped on after Nevermind was released, from the true fans. All of Kurt's anguish is poured 110% into this album, and the record company releasing it, DGC, claimed it may not release the album in it's original state for it would not be commercially viable, and called the album "Unlistenable". Was the record company justified in saying this? Or were they just too harsh? Let's take a look. The album kicks off with "Serve the Servants", and this may just be my favorite track on the album. Kurt takes an introspective look at Nevermind, with the first lines of the song, and album, being "Teenage Angst has paid off well/Now I'm bored and Old". The song has a raw, disjointed feeling to it, especially the guitar chords. This is one of the reasons I love this song so much. It has a very low-fi sound, and just rocks. The next song is Scentless Apprentice, which is one of the songs that'll definitely seperate the fans from the bandwagoners. The song is very hard hitting, and most of it is Kurt screaming. At times he flies into a full out wail yelling "GO AWAAAAYYYY". It's a good song, but definitely will be tough to listen to the first few times you hear it. Next, we have the classic Heart-Shaped Box. Pretty much everybody who's been into rock music at some point knows this song, and it's easily one of the darkest songs to ever get heavy rotation on the radio. With lyrics like "I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black" and "Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back", it's surprising this was released as a single at all. I especially love the *bum bum* "HEY" *bum bum* "WAIT", "I've got a new complaint!" chorus. Now, we jump over to the controversial "Rape Me". You can't help wondering that Kurt wrote the song to be as catchy as Smells like Teen Spirit, and trust me, it's as catchy if not more catchy, only to put shocking lyrics over it. The lyrics are perceived to have two different meanings: How Kurt feels that he and his image are raped by the media, or someone who is actually being raped, saying "Rape me again, karma will come and get you", as Kurt had a strong belief in Karma. The 5th track is "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle", which is another one of my favorites off the album. It's a great rock song, and Kurt's battle with depression definitely shows here, with a chorus line saying "I miss the comfort in being sad". Next we have a track on the album which is believed to be about how Kurt felt about himself, "I think I'm Dumb/Maybe Just Happy". It's one of the slower songs Nirvana did, and has a cello during the chorus. It's a great song. Next we have the little rocker "Very Ape", and while it's quite short, clocking in at 1:56, it's an excellent song that should please the fans of Nirvana's punk roots. Moving on, we have Milk It. The song follows the quiet/loud style of rock Nirvana popularized, and during the verses Kurt is barely audible. When the rock kicks in, it is blistering. Next is "Pennyroyal Tea", which is a straight forward rock track, and another favorite of mine on the album. Following is "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter", which is another punk rock sounding song, with lots of feedback. It's good, but not one of my favorites on the album. The 11th track on the album is the quick, blistering, extremely raw "Tourette's", which Kurt literally screams the lyrics to. The last song on the album is "All Apologies", which is another of Nirvana's well known songs. It is a beautifully depressing song, ending with the lines "All in all is all we are". It also contains one of my favorite song lines of all time, "What else should I say/ Everyone is gay". It is a great way to close Nirvana's last studio album. The album clocks in at a total of 41:11, with 12 songs. Overall, it's a great album. Real fans of Nirvana and grunge rock will love it, people who really only like Nirvana's singles should proceed with caution. I give this album a 9.5 out of 10, and whole-heartily recommend it to any rock fan and anyone who wants to dig deeper into Nirvana's library. The only reason the album does not get a 10 is sometimes it is truly hard to listen to, like the song "Tourette's". If you find you like this album and want to seek out some more of Kurt Cobain and crew's genius work, check out the compilation album Incesticide, their first album Bleach, and their MTV Unplugged album, which is stunning and beautiful. Enjoy! Review: I don't know the full history of every song but I know a great album when I hear one - My favorite nirvana project & for good reason, it starts off with the wonderful lyrics and instrumentals on "Serve the Servants", which I feel gives a good description of society towards his music and his relationship with his father. Next comes the heavy "Scentless apprentice", giving a feeling of abnormality and being judged at birth, which makes the "Hey, Go Away!!!" at the top of his lungs, remincent to what a child would do, especially one who has been abnormal to the world he's been living in. Next comes the song "Heart-Shaped Box", for what I can tell as being one of the most twisted, moody ways to make a love song with lyrics like 'I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black' but also gets more interested get when the hook comes in, 'Hey, wait, I've got a new complaint; forever in debt to your priceless advice", saying that I constantly complain, and no matter how great things look, I'm just focusing on the negative, this album being the last before Kurt passed, makes a lot of the lyrics of self loathing and pain, more potent. Next of course comes "Rape Me", a song that Kurt contain said in an interview, as wanting to make a song with one solid meaning, that people couldn't confuse for something else; to that I have to say he failed because I've gotten several different meanings from this song alone; (record company, legitimate rape, himself) but regardless of what scenario you come to this song, it's still one of the best songs in the album, with lyrics that will wake anyone up; touching on the stigma that 'she was asking for it' Kurt flips the script and shows the listener what a self loathing victim 'asking for it' really sounds like, and delivers a fantastic performance, one added note, if you look at the sound as a jab at the record companies, he starts of with the riff to "Smells like teen spirit" on this song, and just getting a sense of kurt's character, he wasn't very fond of the media & I assume his life after his most popular song, it could also be a little way to say 'hey listen to this, it's you're favorite song' as a way to get the listeners engaged to the filterless lyrics that were about come up; but I've fan girled about this great song long enough. Next comes "France's farmer will have her revenge on Seattle", starts off with a relationship gone wrong, with the partner only caring about money & only worried about the other spouses well being as long as it benefits her, from here on Kurt doesn't seem surprised about this act, saying 'it's starting to sound the same' and then giving the cryptic lyrics, 'I miss the comfort in feeling sad', saying he no longer feel anything anymore & that sadness may be hell but atlas the felt something. Next comes "Dumb", where he gives a handful of depressing lyrics, with a hint that everything will be okay, then calls himself dumb, then follows up with 'I think I'm just happy'; saying that to be happy in this world you gotta be ignorant or dumb because life ain't always bliss. Next comes "Very Ape", where he acknowledges his controdictions and wears them proudly, also he says the lyrics 'out of the ground, into the sky. Out of the sky into the ground' could be a reference to religion in the first line and a reference to suicide in the next. I also would to acknowledge the hilarious line 'if you ever need anything please don't, hesitate to ask someone else first' gets me everytime. Next comes "Milk it", one of the more dark lyriced gems on the album, he starts off by calling himself a parasite with I prusume his partner, feeding off one another's happiness to stay alive, he then say 'look on the bright side is suicide' which holds a lot of weight because of the events after the album, one thing I've noticed is that when he says 'test meat' & 'doll steak' he's almost saying it as if he is as worthless as test meat and want to relate to the imagery of hanging test meat, but non the less, the song is heavy, dark & just what you expect moving on in the album. Next up comes "Pennyroyal tea" which I read use to be a method of abortion, which make 'come sit and drink my pennyroyal tea, distill the life that's inside of me' pretty clear. Next comes "radio friendly unit shifter" not much to say about this song, it has song great imagery, great instrumentals, some of my favorite lyrics such as 'love you for what I am not' and 'a blanket acned with cigarette burns', can't complain. Next is "Tourette's" and this song can be described exactly as the title suggest, chaotic, all over the place & of course very heavy. Finally come the last song "All apologies" and this song is not only a fantastic closer with an amazing riff, but give you a heart wrenching feeling when he reflects on everything that has been said and done, and just takes a deep breath and sits back on his chair, he could possibly be talking to his child, which would explain the peaceful contrast to a very dark/heavy album and the line 'i wish I was like you, easily amused'; all and all this is a fantastic closer to a phenomenal album, if an instrumental or riff doesn't get you the lyrics will, if the lyrics don't get you the delivery will. Nirvana have definitely made one of the best albums I've heard and to be honest it's hard to dispute that this album is less than phenomenal