9. In Utero - Nirvana 1993
"Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old!" This is
the album that Kurt Cobain had always wanted to make. It had taken the runaway success of world-changing second album, 'Nevermind', to show him what he really needed to see, and the result was these painfully frank, and at times, hard to listen to twelve tracks. Enlisting Steve Albini, to produce the record was in reaction to the very polished sound that Butch Vig and Andy Wallace had produced and mixed respectively, on 'Nevermind'. Cobain, deliberately wanted to make a much rawer sounding album whilst taking listeners to more extremes than had been explored on the aforementioned. He wanted the poppier songs to be poppier and the harder songs to be, well, just that. What was important was getting a really live sound. Albini and the band had set the goal of getting all the recording done in two weeks, so as not to over analyse everything, and just capture the right takes. The drums are a huge factor in getting the desired sound, choosing not to use the close mic-ed drum tracks, and using the room ambient room mic recordings only. It works a treat and really makes the whole sound, much more organic. Tracks like Serve the Servants, Scentless Apprentice and Very Ape all sound brilliantly edgy and
real. The new approach to recording makes the softer songs, Heart Shaped Box, Pennyroyal Tea and All Apologies, sound much more human and poignant.
There was discontent from the label, Geffen Records, that was rumored to be an underlying disappointment at not getting another 'Nevermind', but David Geffen himself stated to the media - "Of course, we'd release anything the band submitted to us." There is a real Punk Rock atmosphere that was definitely lacking in the predecessor's sonic sheen. Pleasing that Cobain got to deliver this great, third album, as less than seven months later, he was found dead.