In Utero: 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

"Teenage angst has paid off well," growls Kurt Cobain on In Utero's opening fusillade, "Serve the Servants," suggesting that perhaps success has spoiled Nirvana. Not! In Utero is a howling, defiantly punkish recording, an unsentimental throwback to an era of garage band epiphanies and raw, unadorned rock & roll. On In Utero, Nirvana rails against both "alternative" conformity and polished notions of commercial rock with the anthemic rage of true outcasts. Engineer-producer Steve Albini enabled Nirvana to replicate the savage immediacy of their live sound: the sound of a band without commercial aspirations or pretensions, just thrashing away for the sheer joy of noise. Drummer Dave Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic play with heroic power as guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Kurt Cobain overlays their growling beat with shards of broken glass and shattered dreams. On "Scentless Apprentice," each Cobain power chord is tempered by a series of calculated dissonances and melodic fragments, while the singer bares his vulnerability and anger through Nirvana's familiar soft-hard-soft-hard structures on "Heart Shaped Box" and "Rape Me." Through his crunching guitar and elliptical lyrics on various diseases and recoveries, Cobain lays bare the turmoil and resentments, the physical and mental ailments (self-inflicted and otherwise) that have colored Nirvana's history. Instead of celebrating their success, Nirvana have fashioned a powerful cautionary tale on In Utero, to wit, that fame, acclaim, and wealth are not liberating; that music like this cannot be produced on an assembly line, then be used once and tossed on a scrap heap; that life and music were a lot more fun when they were back playing for an audience of nine in some grungy club. In Utero is too strong and honest to ignore.|