HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: In Utero – Nirvana
“Despite the fears of some alternative-music fans, NIRVANA haven’t gone mainstream, though this potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go NIRVANA.” If ever a sentence could sum up just how global, influential and powerful NIRVANA were at the beginning of the 1990’s, the above from Christopher John Farley of TIME magazine is just about perfect. Farley wrote the line in his review of the Seattle grunge trio’s then latest release, third album In Utero, released thirty years ago this month on September 21st, 1993.
It was an album heavily weighed down by expectation – nobody had expected 1991’s sophomore release Nevermind to sell particularly well, let alone be the catalyst for a brand new music uprising and launch three scruffy, abrasive twenty-somethings into unparalleled stardom. Yet, not everyone had been happy with the album – the band themselves had expressed disdain over Butch Vig‘s production, saying it had been too polished; Vig would later say to Billboard in 2011 that frontman Kurt Cobain had needed to work with a new producer to ‘reclaim his punk ethics or cred’.
The band went with Steve Albini, formerly of noise rock band BIG BLACK, as their producer of choice – Cobain said this was down to him producing two of his favourite records (Surfa Rosa by the PIXIES and Pod by THE BREEDERS) and his technique of capturing the natural ambience of a room through the use of multiple microphones. By contrast, Albini himself wasn’t too enamoured initially, describing NIRVANA as ‘R.E.M with a fuzzbox’ and saying he took the job because he felt sorry for the band, considering them “the same sort of people as all the small-fry bands I deal with” who were at the mercy of the record companies.
In February 1993, all parties decamped at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, MN for an agreed two-week recording session. Albini had expected to butt heads with Cobain, who he had been told was a ‘sexist jerk’, but was pleasantly surprised, even going as far to say that the recording was ‘the easiest we’ve ever done, hands down’; he would also say that, despite all the stories of Cobain‘s drug problems, the frontman was sober and focused in the studio. With nine days gone, the remaining five were spent mixing, with the band and Albini taking time out to watch nature videos, make prank calls or set things on fire if they hit difficulties.
More issues were to follow – first, NIRVANA‘s label, DGC, weren’t happy with the results and seemed, according to Cobain, to be asking him to scrap the sessions and start again. This wouldn’t come to pass, but when the band themselves started having doubts, they knew it couldn’t last. “The first time I played it at home, I knew there was something wrong,” Cobain told Circus magazine. “I got no emotion from it, I was just numb.”. They asked Albini to remix it; he declined, fearing ‘a slippery slope’ and then, when he heard the band were considering remixing some of the tracks with Scott Litt and Nevermind mixer, disagreed so vehemently that he initially held the tapes to ransom, only relenting after bassist Kris Novoselic spoke to him over the phone.
In Utero debuted at #1 on both sides of the Atlantic, shifting 180,000 copies in its first week in the US. For many, it’s NIRVANA‘s greatest work – the raw, powerful punk of debut record Bleach and the more fine-tuned radio grunge of Nevermind sitting harmoniously side by side, all while Cobain‘s lyrical genius combined themes of death with nurturance and life and also referenced his parent’s divorce, lack of a father figure and his state of mind in the wake of the band’s success. The more abrasive nature of Scentless Apprentice, Milk It and the 95-second Tourette’s is balanced out by the poetic strains of Heart-Shaped Box, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle and All Apologies; the latter featured cellist Kera Schaley, who also provided strings on the morose Dumb. Later on in the decade, the riff from Very Ape would find further success when THE PRODIGY sampled it on their single Voodoo People. Rolling Stone made it their album of the year and it received critical acclaim from all corners. Cobain said to Jim DeRogatis at the time that ‘We’re certain that we won’t sell a quarter as much [as Nevermind], and we’re totally comfortable with that because we like this record so much.’ He was wrong – In Utero wouldn’t sell as well as Nevermind, but as of today it’s still 5x platinum in the US for at least 5 million units sold and double platinum in the UK.
Of course, everyone knows what happened next – NIRVANA toured the US in support of the record in late 1993, then began a six week European tour in 1994 that was cut short by Cobain suffering an accidental drug overdose in Rome on March 6th. He flew back to the States and agreed to enter rehab, but instead went missing and, on April 5th, died by suicide in the greenhouse of his Seattle home. NIRVANA disbanded immediately, thus ending the career of one of music’s greatest three-pieces. This month, a brand new 30th anniversary boxset was announced for October 27 with bonus tracks, live performances and more; a fitting commemoration for an album that was weighed under immense expectation and delivered on all fronts.
In Utero was originally released on September 21 1993 via DGC Records.
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