In Utero: 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition ［3CD+DVD+ハードカバー・ブック］＜限定盤＞

Nirvana最大の問題作、拡大エディションで登場!前作 "Nevermindのメジャー大成功を受け、バンドの意向によりアンダーグラウンドへの回帰をテーマに制作された最終アルバムの20周年記念企画!1993年リリースのオリジナル・マスターテープをロンドンの名門スタジオ、アビィ・ロード・スタジオで20年振りに完全リマスター!CD 1にはオリジナル・アルバムの2013年最新リマスター音源、シングルBサイド音源を中心に収録。CD 2にはスティーヴ・アルビニがアビー・ロード・スタジオにて行ったアルバム全曲の最新リミックス・ヴァージョン、デモ音源を中心に収録。DVDは1993年12月に行われた"Live And Loud"、初公開トラックも含む完全版+ワールド・ツアーの未発表テイクを多数含む貴重なライヴ映像を収録。CD 3にはDVD "Live And Loud"の全17曲を収録。パッケージは、外箱がマグネット仕様。ポスター、豪華なLPサイズのブック。

Nirvana probably hired Steve Albini to produce In Utero with the hopes of creating their own Surfer Rosa, or at least shoring up their indie cred after becoming a pop phenomenon with a glossy punk record. In Utero, of course, turned out to be their last record, and it's hard not to hear it as Kurt Cobain's suicide note, since Albini's stark, uncompromising sound provides the perfect setting for Cobain's bleak, even nihilistic, lyrics. Even if the album wasn't a literal suicide note, it was certainly a conscious attempt to shed their audience -- an attempt that worked, by the way, since the record had lost its momentum when Cobain died in the spring of 1994. Even though the band tempered some of Albini's extreme tactics in a remix, the record remains a deliberately alienating experience, front-loaded with many of its strongest songs, then descending into a series of brief, dissonant squalls before concluding with "All Apologies," which only gets sadder with each passing year. Throughout it all, Cobain's songwriting is typically haunting, and its best moments rank among his finest work, but the over-amped dynamicism of the recording seems like a way to camouflage his dispiritedness -- as does the fact that he consigned such great songs as "Verse Chorus Verse" and "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" to compilations, when they would have fit, even illuminated the themes of In Utero. Even without those songs, In Utero remains a shattering listen, whether it's viewed as Cobain's farewell letter or self-styled audience alienation. Few other records are as willfully difficult as this. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine