Every person listening to this episode know who Nirvana were, and probably own or have owned a copy of their second album “Nevermind” and know the songs and perhaps even the story behind it. If not, you should check out the episode of this podcast dedicated to it in Season 1.
By the time the tour behind that album had finished, several question marks had begun to be raised. Cobain sought to have the royalty's distribution, which to that point in time had been divided equally, changed to reflect that he composed almost all of the band’s material. Though both Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl did not argue this, it came to a head when Cobain tried to make it retroactive to include the royalties for “Nevermind”. Depending on whose opinion you listen to, there was either little chance of this affecting the band morale, or in fact the band was close to ending at that point. Though an agreement was made where Cobain did receive 75% of those earlier recording's royalties, it did seem that this angst was present for the remaining time the band was together.
Cobain’s health at this time also led to rumours of the band’s demise, before they put together two of their most memorable performances, firstly at the 1992 Reading Festival, and then a few days later at the MTV Video Music Awards.
While the band’s record company had been hoping for a new album to release towards the end of 1992, they had instead released a compilation album contain rare live performances, B-sides and bootleg songs to appease the fans who were all looking for more material. From this point the band looked forward to the next album. Armed with a new producer in Steve Albini, some songs already written and others in an unfinished form, the band went into the studio in February 1993, and recorded their new album, “In Utero”, in just two weeks. Despite this, it took almost another seven months for the album to be released. Despite initially liking how the album sounded, the band and their record company soon had reservations about it, and then spent a number of months arguing about whether it needed to be remixed or re-recorded, while Albini adamantly refused to budge on what he felt was an iron-clad agreement not to change anything about the album’s recording. There was also concerns about whether the large American markets would put the album on their shelves, over the song “Rape Me” and what they felt it was portraying to the public. It seems almost ludicrous in this modern world that an album took two weeks to produce, but seven months for it to be released. Especially given that it profited all parties involved to get it out into the public's hands as soon as possible.
The whole vibe of “In Utero” is a different breed form both of the two preceding albums. There is a real divide between the way the songs are recorded and played here on this album that the others, something that both producer and writer was looking for. There is a true raw vocal sound from Cobain on many songs on the album, including the opening tracks “Serve the Servants” and "Scentless Apprentice". Unlike most Nirvana songs, the guitar riff on “Scentless Apprentice” was written by Dave Grohl, and though Cobain professed not to like it he wrote the song to accommodate it, while Krist Novoselic helped compose the song's second section. It is the only song on In Utero on which all three band members received songwriting credits. For some reason, this gets high praise in fan circles, and supposedly Cobain wanted to release this as the second single from the album. I admit I don’t get it. The track seems off, the screams are over wrought, and to me it just isn’t a very accessible track. Perhaps that’s why he was so keen to get it out there.
In polar opposite from those tracks, the next two have Cobain at his crooning best. “Heart Shaped Box” came from a riff that Courtney Love claims was the only riff she ever asked if Kurt wanted, because she wanted to use it for her band. After the previous song, this is much more back in the NIrvana groove, with the brooding vocals and loaded drum work from Dave. “Rape Me” was actually written before the release of “Nevermind” and was literally written lyrically as an anti-rape song, but the addition of lyrics in the middle of the song months later also gave it a twist of being against the litany of fame and the increased desire of the media and public to want every part of the artist and his family. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle” continued down the path of those drawbacks to fame and the mental fatigue it caused especially Cobain at this time.
The remainder of the album continues in this vein of coarse vocalled tracks and the most recognisable Cobain croon, while the music morphs as is necessary. The hasher verdicts of songs such as “Milk It” are measured out by the less frantic and less audible tones of songs like “Dumb” and “Pennyroyal Tea” and “All Apologies”
Nevermind’s success was built off the opening single, a song that captured the imagination of the listening public around the globe and blew up all over the world. There’s no doubt that many fans came into “In Utero” and were looking for another “Smells Like Teen Spirit” to light the fire again, and that the album would follow down the same path as “Nevermind” did. The fact that it didn’t, and that the opening single to this album “Heart Shaped Box” was perhaps more of a brooder and a creeper than the raw energy of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” always felt from my perspective that it threw a massive curveball at the fans of the time.
My view of “In Utero” has always been in a comparison, much the same way as Faith No More’s album “Angel Dust“ was on a completely different level from their multi-million selling commercial breakthrough “The Real Thing“. Just like “Angel Dust” this is the ugly duckling of the discography. “In Utero” is a different beast, which is the way that Kurt Cobain wanted it. He didn’t want an album that was as slickly produced as the previous album was, which was why he changed producer from the acclaimed Butch Vig to using Steve Albini. He wanted a more raw and abrasive sound for the album, one that harked back to their debut album “Bleach”, while still being able to have those other more subtle sounding songs where he could use the quiet emotion of the band to express that side of their sound as well.
The end result was “In Utero”, an album that Cobain was quoted as saying was “impersonal” in interviews on its release, but surely nothing could be further from the truth. Most of the songs here lyrically are dealing with depression, and dealing with the trappings of fame, and dealing with life itself. There are people – overly obsessed people to be sure – who have spent years dissecting the words of the songs here, and trying to interpret just what Kurt was trying to say – what he was REALLY trying to say, and looking for doble meanings and hidden truths amongst what he wrote and sang. Which, really, is madness. Everything Kurt Cobain was feeling is right there in his lyrics, at the surface. He’s not trying to be clever or make songs difficult to derive meaning from.
When I first bought this album, I was no different from the other hordes of people who climbed aboard. I was not necessarily looking for, but probably expected, another “Nevermind”. And that definitely is NOT what this album is. And it definitely took some getting used to, because it isn’t as easily accessible as that album was. But once you wade in past the change in mood, the change in vocal sound and the change in expectation, what I found was a really interesting album. It is , probably surprisingly, not as aggressive an album musically as its predecessor, something that I had been anticipated and even looking forward to. Instead, it is an album that draws a lot of introspection instead. It was an album I expected was going to be great to play at parties loud and sing along to loud. And instead it is an album that seems better utilised by sitting in a lounge chair and considering the lyrics and admiring the musical work. And that’s where my enjoyment of this album comes from. It’s a different piece of art, that’s for sure, but one worth admiring nonetheless.
Kurt Cobain has been called a genius in the years since his demise for the way he wrote songs and lyrics and the way he sang to exhort the maximum amount of emotion from each track. To me, that really is overdoing it and making his work more than it actually is. Kurt Cobain was obviously a person who had trouble dealing with a lot of things in his life, but most especially the fame that came with his band’s amazing popularity, and the things he had to deal with as a result of this explosion in fame. He suffered from depression, and as a result drug dependency. And he wrote about these things in his music. And his music and words, on this album and the only other two albums the band produced, is amazing and ground breaking and iconic. Whether that makes him a genius or someone to be pitied is a completely different conversation.
