Nirvana – In Utero

Nirvana – In Utero

In Utero is Nirvana's third and final studio album.  Despite the massive sales of the previous album Nevermind, In Utero remains a more diverse album with greater depth and an insight into the evolving sound and direction the band was working towards before Kurt Cobain's death in April of 1994.  It's a genuinely sad thing that we never got to hear a fourth album, or a fifth, but this LP is a window into what could have been. 

 
I remember when I first heard Nirvana.  My friend told me I'd really like these guys and I recall watching a clip of some janitor slowly grooving on a mop and some other dude taking off with the high hat from the drum kit.  It was chaos and at that point, really fresh and new.  Nevermind sold over 30 million copies and smells like teen spirit was radio station triple J’s number one song in the hottest 100 songs of all time.  It was always going to be a hard act to follow.  And instead of trying to recreate Nevermind, In Utero is a brave step in an alternate direction. 
 
As much as I have always loved Nirvana's music, the antithesis of that love is how much I despise all of the bullshit that surrounds Nirvana and in particular Kurt.  It was, and is everywhere.  Lengthy reviews that academically analyse the lyrics – “poor Kurt the misunderstood tortured genius - this line anticipates his suicide, this lyric shows how he was feeling dictated to by the record label”, blah blah blah...  It drives me mad!  If I hadn't watched so many interviews with Kurt, where he is (except when obviously high) such a modest and down to earth sort of guy, it would be quite easy to dislike him.  But the truth is I think he hated the bullshit just as much - no, no doubt even more than anyone else.  In an interview with Kurt in Seattle in August of 1993, he spoke about how he wrote lyrics like “garble” and “garbage” that just spewed out of him, “And a lot of time when I write lyrics it’s at the last second because I’m really lazy”.  He spoke with some apparent distain about the subsequent need to come up with an explanation for the true meaning of the lyrics when the songs were endlessly analysed by others. 
 
Kurt originally called In Utero "I hate myself and I want to die" from the song of the same name.  Not surprisingly, there was a mountain of crap surrounding the meaning behind this, as a prelude to Kurt's eventual suicide.  In truth the title was just a joke, driven by Kurt being sick and tired of people taking the band and the music so very seriously.  The title only changed after bassist Krist Novoselic convinced Kurt that the risk of the title leading to the band being sued was too great.  There is no doubt meaning in some or most of the lyrics, and some of that meaning does reflect Kurt’s growing state of depression.  So even though the unfortunate academic and analytical approach to Nirvana's music by many was cemented and perpetuated by Kurt's suicide, it's vitally important to cast all that aside and listen to this album in the spirit is was intended - as a great bunch of songs by a unique grunge band on the cusp of a ground-breaking transition that never got the chance to fully evolve.
 
The album starts out with serve the servants, Nirvana the servants, being waited upon as rock and roll royalty, something none of them ever imagined.  The opening line sets the scene for a good slab of the album, "teenage angst has served me well, now I'm bored and old".  And Kurt was bored.  Imagine how many times the guys had played smells like teen spirit.  I know it still gets gongs and is no doubt an anthem of one part of a generation - but god dam I've just heard it too much and I only hear it now and then nowadays.  And when I look at really early Nirvana (before the release of Bleach, like at Krist's Mum's house bashing it out under a strobe light) yeah, relatively speaking they were old and bored.  On top of that, even at the height of Nevermind they were always apathetic.
 
Scentless apprentice is a track inspirer by the novel perfume: the story of a murderer, by German author Patrick Suskind.  Kurt loved this book and carried it with him constantly in a bit of a Mark David Chapman - Catcher in the Rye, type way.   And it is a great song spurning human contact and humanity in general.  I hope Dave Grohl had a double kick though. The quintuple bass kicks sound cool but every time I hear this track I think that if it was a single kick his right leg would have been ready to fall off by the end of it.
 
Then for the two singles off the album, heart shaped box and rape me. Heart shaped box Kurt said was inspired by a doco about children with cancer.  Might have been - but it's definitely a Kurt and Courtney song.  But who cares, what an awesome song.  It is indicative of the new direction for Nirvana.  The track makes me sad to think what Kurt would have gone on to compose.  Rape me - the analysts’ varied views say it's about Kurt's frustration with the record label, his personal insecurities, his stand against rape – blah, blah, blah.  Then again, maybe some days we all just wake up and feel like we're copping it from all angles, served up on a plate. 
 
Kurt always readily admitted his love for the Beatles, and their influence on his music remains apparent on In Utero, especially in songs like heart shaped box and all apologies.  If you got Paul McCartney and buried him in the soured soils of an Indian burial ground, dug him up and made his altered living corpse write early Beatalesque melodies, this is what it would sound like.  If you've ever seen the movie Pet Cemetery by Stephen King, you'll know what I mean - evil alter-ego Paul.
 
Next up is Francis Farmer will have her revenge on Seattle.  Kurt could no doubt identify with the beautiful actress come vagrant, alcoholic mental patient.  A Seattle antihero who, unlike himself, faded away rather than burned out.  I love this song and find comfort in its familiar Cobain formula - softer vocals over a strong but clear channel guitar, only to then erupt with a kick to the distortion pedal and vocal chord shredding lyrics.  When Kurt wasn't writing from his own stream of consciousness, books or poems he had read seem to be the fodder for lyrics. This is one of those latter types of songs.
 
Dumb introduced something unheard of in grunge - cellos – no doubt a rare beast in the 90's grunge clubs of Seattle.  Again this was part of the band’s evolution.  Maybe written on heroin, based solely on the lyrics.
 
Very ape and milk it are right back to the band’s grunge roots and would not have been misplaced on the first LP Bleach which was laid down at a whopping cost of $600.  No cellos here, just wall of sound chaos. Very ape is notable for the almost scar like guitar riff.  Have another listen and you'll see what I mean.
 
There's a shift in gear to Pennyroyal tea, for a few minutes at least, and then straight back into it with the ironically and facetiously named Radio friendly unit shifter (it's anything but) and Tourette's.
 
I'm hesitant to entertain the bullshit but, the closing track all apologies does show a darker state of mind and a feeling of isolation - the repeating refrain "all alone is all we are" is very telling of the ultimate outcome for Kurt.  But it wasn't a demise driven by anger for the outside world, it wasn't the tortured genius, it wasn't even being bored and old - it was heroin - full stop.  Despite the multiple contradictions in his suicide note, one thing is for sure and that is that absolutely nothing was giving Kurt any pleasure anymore - not his music, not his new kid, not performing in front of tens of thousands of adoring fans - nothing.  He so badly wanted to get back that sort of genuine raw excitement usually only small kids display.  And what removes pleasure from everything to that degree, even things that you previously cherished above all else, I ask rhetorically? Heroin.  
He just couldn't shake it and it fed the demise of making music as the very essence of his life, to a habitual punch clock whenever he strapped on the Fender Mustang or whatever it was that night.
 
There’s a considerable steaming pile of academia about Steve Albini's original production of In Utero being unreleaseable and Scott Litt of R.E.M. fame having to come in and clean up the mess pre-release.  Well yeah, there are differences between the two cuts but unless I’m missing the point, nothing phenomenal.  So what that there's a solo with a stomp box with heaps of delay and fuzz on the Albini mix - it's still the same album.  Given the choice, I like the Albini mix better. It's rawer and is more in line with what the band were trying to achieve with this LP - just like sitting on top of your Fender 40 watt and bashing out tunes with your mates and recording at the same time.  Albini got that.  The final polish wasn't the death knell so many, including Albini, made it out to be though – but the Albini differences, although slight, do make for a better album overall.
 
Owing to the wonders of Spotify and Rdio and such we have 20th anniversary editions, deluxe editions and even super deluxe editions of In Utero!  But these mixes are not the subject of this review and detract a bit from the choices that were made to cut a 12 track 41 minute LP.  What I can comment on legitimately is Gallons of rubbing alcohol flow through the strip because it was originally released as a bonus track on non-U.S presses.  I love this song.  I get the impression the band might have wanted more songs of this ilk on the album.  It has such a resigning apathy. Classic Kurt, almost to the point where he stops playing, “fuck man this is a waste of time”.  This song is a move away from the single grabbing tracks in a late Hendrix sort of way - if you love the band you'll love this song.  Not a smells like teen spirit, not a foxy lady but hey, “one more solo?”.  
 
I would have loved to have heard album number four – and fourteen.  Heroin saw to it that we never will.
Rollingstone says 435. Really? Even though it is one of the second round entrants into the list, this is an LP deserving of a much higher rank. The sceptic would say that we’re too close in time, post grunge, and it’s still not cool to show unbridled support in fear of being labelled cliché. 435… a grave injustice.